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Cricket Stats Explained: Batting Average, Strike Rate, Economy and More

The five core cricket statistics: batting average, batting strike rate, bowling average, economy rate and bowling strike rate, with worked calculations.

By Published 3 min read

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Key takeaways

  • Batting average is runs scored divided by the number of times out, not by innings, so not-out innings raise it.
  • Batting strike rate is runs per 100 balls faced; higher means faster scoring.
  • Bowling average is runs conceded per wicket; economy rate is runs conceded per over; bowling strike rate is balls bowled per wicket. Lower is better for all three.
  • Convert overs written as 16.1 into 16 and one-sixth overs before dividing.
  • Read the numbers together: Wikipedia notes strike rate and economy rate carry more weight in limited-overs cricket than in Tests.

A cricket scorecard is a grid of numbers, and five of them do most of the work in judging players: batting average, batting strike rate, bowling average, economy rate and bowling strike rate. Each answers a different question. This guide defines them as Wikipedia's statistics articles do and calculates each from one invented season.

The five core statistics

Statistic Formula Measures Better is
Batting average Runs ÷ times out Runs per dismissal Higher
Batting strike rate Runs ÷ balls faced × 100 Scoring speed Higher
Bowling average Runs conceded ÷ wickets Cost of each wicket Lower
Economy rate Runs conceded ÷ overs bowled Runs given away per over Lower
Bowling strike rate Balls bowled ÷ wickets How often wickets come Lower

Batting average: dismissals, not innings

Wikipedia defines a batting average as total runs divided by the number of times the batter has been out, usually given to two decimal places. Dividing by dismissals rather than innings is the point that confuses newcomers.

Worked example. A batter scores 612 runs in 18 innings and is not out in three of them.

Calculation Result
Times out: 18 − 3 15
Batting average: 612 ÷ 15 40.80
Runs per innings, for comparison: 612 ÷ 18 34.00

The not-outs lift the average above runs per innings, because an unfinished innings adds runs without adding a dismissal. Wikipedia notes averages can be strongly affected by not-outs: Phil Tufnell's ODI average was 15, despite a highest score of 5 not out, because he scored 15 runs in 10 innings and was out only once. A career with very few innings can also produce an extreme figure. Wikipedia notes, for example, that Kurtis Patterson averaged 144 in Test cricket from just two innings, falling short of the 20-innings qualification usually used for records.

The record among qualified players belongs to Australia's Sir Donald Bradman, at 99.94. Wikipedia adds context: an average over 50 is exceptional, and only four other players average over 60.

Batting strike rate: speed

Batting strike rate is runs per 100 balls faced. Our batter faced 480 balls: 612 ÷ 480 × 100 = 127.50. Strike rate matters most where balls are limited. Wikipedia's strike-rate article notes that because each team faces a limited number of balls in limited-overs cricket, the faster a batter scores, the more runs the team can accumulate, and that strike rates over 150 are becoming common in Twenty20 cricket.

Bowling average, economy and strike rate

Wikipedia defines bowling average as runs conceded per wicket, economy rate as runs conceded per over and bowling strike rate as balls bowled per wicket.

Worked example. A bowler sends down 62.4 overs, conceding 318 runs and taking 14 wickets.

First convert the overs. A ball is a sixth of an over, so 62.4 overs is 62 overs and 4 balls: 376 balls, or 62.667 overs. Wikipedia's economy-rate article makes the same conversion in its own example, dividing 51 runs by 16.1667 overs for a spell written as 16.1.

Statistic Calculation Result
Bowling average 318 ÷ 14 22.71 runs per wicket
Economy rate 318 ÷ 62.667 5.07 runs per over
Bowling strike rate 376 ÷ 14 26.86 balls per wicket

Wikipedia's economy-rate article notes that byes and leg byes are not charged to the bowler, while wides and no balls are; how cricket scoring works explains why.

Reading the numbers together

  • Average versus strike rate. A batter averaging 45 at a strike rate of 70 and one averaging 30 at 150 score in very different ways; Wikipedia's strike-rate article says strike rate is of considerably more importance in limited-overs cricket.
  • Economy versus wickets. Wikipedia's economy-rate article says economy is typically more important in limited-overs cricket, where bowlers must restrict runs before the overs run out, than in Tests, where an innings usually ends when ten wickets fall.
  • Sample size. Wikipedia's bowling-average article warns that with only a few wickets, an average can be artificially high or low and unstable; the Kurtis Patterson example shows the same for batting.

The team-level equivalent of strike rate and economy is net run rate, and the scores that define a career, such as centuries and five-wicket hauls, are covered in cricket milestones explained. Cricket player roles explains which numbers matter for which job.

In Cricket Sport Career Simulator, one of our sports career games, the store screenshots show live match stats as your cricketer plays, so these are the numbers that track whether a career is going well.

Good to know

Frequently asked questions

How is a batting average calculated?
Total runs divided by the number of times the batter has been out. A batter with 612 runs from 18 innings, three of them not out, has been dismissed 15 times, so the average is 612 ÷ 15 = 40.80.
What is batting strike rate?
Runs scored per 100 balls faced: runs ÷ balls × 100. Scoring 612 runs from 480 balls is a strike rate of 127.50. It measures speed, so it matters most in T20 and ODI cricket.
What is the difference between bowling average and economy rate?
Bowling average is runs conceded per wicket taken, so it rewards taking wickets cheaply. Economy rate is runs conceded per over, so it rewards stopping runs whether or not wickets fall. A bowler can have an excellent economy rate and a poor average if they rarely take wickets.
What is the highest Test batting average?
Wikipedia records Sir Donald Bradman's 99.94 as the highest career Test average among qualified players, and notes that an average over 50 is exceptional, with only four other players above 60.

Sources

  1. Batting average (cricket) (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
  2. Strike rate (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
  3. Bowling average (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
  4. Economy rate (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed

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