Cricket has several interesting terms in its manual which looks good on the screen and even lays the game down in its barest form to the laymen. However, zealots who have always been associated with the game have delved a lot deeper and keeping the surface aside, they have clawed their way to the very core of these terms so that they can figure it out themselves without any help from the statisticians and mathematicians sitting at the other end. We will look at three basic cricketing terms run rate, strike rate and average which have accompanied the game right since its inception and yet most of us jumble up the way it is calculated.
1. Run rate:
Run rate is the simplest form of calculation that you can do in cricket. It is the number of runs scored per over. However, just to break it down, if you score 300 runs in 50 overs, you divide the number of runs by the overs played and you will have your run rate. In the aforementioned state the run rate is 6.00 per over.
Also, to keep in mind if you need to calculate the run rate until the middle of the over, lets say for example, 300 runs from 49.3 overs, you will have to divide the number of runs by the overs and use a decimal and place the number of balls being bowled after the over. In the case of 300 runs from 49.3 overs, the run rate will be 6.08.
The required run rate is just the exact same thing that is being used in case of team chasing the total. The calculation is number of runs to score from the number of overs left.
2. Average:
Batting average – The batting average of the batsman is calculated on the basis of number of runs scored divided by number of times that the batsman has been dismissed. Ideally, the batsman’s skill is being gauged on his ability to score runs and stay not out as many times as he can. However, this technique of drawing a comparison between batsmen to figure out the best has often been subjected to considerable flak.
The batters with the highest average in Test cricket have been Don Bradman, Marnus Labuschange and Steven Smith, though Marnus is still to face the test of time. The ODI batting average list has Virat Kohli, Ryan Ten Doeschate and Babar Azam at the top of it.
Bowling average – A cricketer’s bowling average is calculated on the premise of the number of runs that they have conceded divided by the number of wickets that they have taken. However, byes, leg-byes or penalty runs conceded by bowlers are not taken into consideration.
Now, this tactic of determining the bowling average has been filled with flaws out of which the most common one been the bowler not taking any wickets will never have an average as one cannot divide by zero. This discrepancy leads to different sites setting their own parameters to determine the bowling average.
3. Strike rate
With the advent of T20 cricket, strike rate has become an extremely crucial part of cricket. This is the rate at which the batsman strikes the ball. Ideally, this is calculated by dividing the number of runs scored by the number of balls played and then the result is multiplied by hundred.
Let’s say for example a batsman scores 100 runs from 300 balls, we divide 100 by 300 and then multiplying by 100, the strike rate will be 33.33. Similarly, if the batsman scores 100 runs from 50 balls, the strike rate will be 200. In T20 cricket anything above 130 is deemed as extraordinary strike rate while ODI cricket anything close to 100 is deemed as a decent figure.
