CricketFeature

How is Net Run Rate Calculated in Cricket?

One of the most confusing methods of separating teams on a tie in cricket for ages now has been Net Run Rate. Despite the term seems to be a confusing blend from the surface, it is an extremely easy calculation that decides the advancements and eliminations from world-class tournaments.

A team’s Net Run rate is calculated by deducting from the average runs per over scored by the team throughout the span of the fray, the average runs scored against that team per over in the tournament.

In the circumstance of a team being all-out before playing its full quota of overs, the calculation shall be done on the basis of the total number of overs that the team was supposed to bat for and not the number of overs that the team batted for.

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Only those games where a result has been achieved will serve the purpose of calculating the net run rate. In a game where the match has been shortened and the outcome of the fixture has been sealed by the Duckworth-Lewis method, Team 1 will be awarded with Team 2’s par score on abandonment off the same number of overs that was played by Team 2.

When a match is concluded but the D/L method was applied in an earlier stage of the game, Team 1 will be accredited with 1 run less than the final target score for Team 2 off the total number of overs that have been assigned to Team 2 to achieve the target.

As cited by ESPNcricinfo.com, we will quote the same example of South Africa’s net run rate in the 1999 World Cup where they suffered a tragic fate that sealed their ambitions of notching up the World Cup for the first time.

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How is net run rate calculated?

South Africa’s listing in Group A points table published in the Group stage is given below:

                      P  W  L NR T Pts Net-RR    For        Aga

South Africa          3  3  –  – –   6 +1.495  678/147.2  466/150

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The main parameters that need to be checked in this article are the last three which cites Net-RR that stands for net run rate and the figure in the “Net-RR” column is achieved by subtracting the answer of the division in the “Aga” column from the answer to the division in the “For” column.

This entire example was taken from ESPNcricinfo.com:

FOR

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South Africa had scored, so far in the tournament:

  • Against India, 254 runs (for 6 wkts) from 47.2 overs
  • Against Sri Lanka, 199 runs (for 9 wkts) from 50 overs
  • Against England, 225 runs (for 7 wkts) from 50 overs

Across the three games, South Africa scored 678 runs in a total of 147 overs and 2 balls (actually 147.333 overs), a rate of 678/147.333 or 4.602 rpo.

AGAINST

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Teams opposing South Africa scored:

  • India, 253 (for 5 wkts) from 50 overs.
  • Sri Lanka, 110 all out from 35.2 overs.
  • England, 103 all out from 41 overs.

In the case of Sri Lanka and England, because they were all out before their allotted 50 overs expired, the run rate is calculated as if they had scored their runs over the full 50 overs.

Therefore, the run-rate scored against South Africa across the first three games is calculated on the basis of 466 runs in a total of 50 + 50 + 50 = 150 overs, a rate of 466/150 or 3.107 rpo.

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NET-RR

The net run-rate is, therefore,

  4.602  Run-rate for

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  3.107  Run-rate against

  =====

+ 1.495  ANSWER

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  =====

Hence, you score well in the first innings, the Net run rate takes a leap in the sky but it will not matter if you are bowling poorly. Every single department seeks perfection.

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