CricketWise
  1. Home
  2. Methodology

Methodology: how we calculate every number

How every number on CricketWise is calculated. All figures are computed from Cricsheet ball-by-ball data (ODC-BY). Definitions follow the usual ICC/MCC scoring conventions; where we simplify, we say so. Every definition below is covered by automated tests, and the site is only published when all checks pass.

Coverage

  • Matches in Cricsheet only: Tests from 2001, ODIs from 2002, men's T20 from 2005, plus major T20 leagues and some domestic cricket. Careers that began earlier are incomplete, and every player page shows the date range covered.
  • Matches involving the Afghanistan men's team and the Afghanistan Premier League are withheld by Cricsheet. Records of teams and players who played Afghanistan are therefore missing those matches.
  • Formats: Test; ODI; T20I (T20 between national teams); T20 leagues & domestic (franchise and domestic T20). Unofficial internationals (Cricsheet "IT20") and domestic one-day and multi-day matches are kept separate and never mixed into Test/ODI/T20I figures.
  • Men's and women's cricket are always separate.

Matches and innings

  • A player's matches are the matches in which they were in the playing XI, including concussion and other match replacements. Matches abandoned without a ball bowled are not counted.
  • Super overs are excluded from all career, venue and team figures.
  • A batter has an innings if they faced a ball, stood at the non-striker's end, or were dismissed (e.g. timed out). A non-striker who never faced is shown as 0 not out.

Batting

  • Runs: runs off the bat only (no extras).
  • Balls faced: every delivery faced except wides. No-balls count as balls faced.
  • Fours / sixes: boundaries only. A four that was run (all-run) is not a four.
  • Dismissals: bowled, caught, caught and bowled, lbw, stumped, run out, hit wicket, obstructing the field, handled the ball, hit the ball twice, timed out, and retired out. Retired hurt and retired not out are not dismissals. A batter who retires hurt and returns is treated as one innings.
  • Average = runs ÷ dismissals (shown as "–" with no dismissals). Strike rate = runs ÷ balls faced × 100.
  • Highest score: the most runs in one innings, with * when not out. 50s count 50–99, 100s count 100 or more (a double hundred is also a hundred). Duck: out for 0, including out without facing a ball.

Bowling

  • Balls bowled: legal deliveries only (wides and no-balls are not balls bowled).
  • Runs conceded: runs off the bat + wides + no-balls. Byes, leg byes and penalty runs are not charged to the bowler.
  • Wickets: bowled, caught, caught and bowled, lbw, stumped and hit wicket only. Run outs and other dismissals are not credited to the bowler.
  • Economy = runs conceded ÷ balls × 6 (runs per six-ball over, including in The Hundred). Average = runs ÷ wickets. Strike rate = balls ÷ wickets.
  • Best figures: most wickets, then fewest runs, in one innings (and in one match for multi-day cricket). Shown only when the bowler has taken a wicket.
  • Maiden: a complete over bowled entirely by one bowler with no runs conceded by the bowler (byes and leg byes do not spoil a maiden).
  • Dot ball (bowler): a legal ball with no runs off the bat and no wide or no-ball. Leg byes and byes count as dots for the bowler.

Teams and innings totals

  • Total = all runs scored off every delivery (bat + all extras), plus penalty runs awarded to that innings.
  • Wickets lost counts every dismissal except retired hurt and retired not out.
  • Completed innings: all out, declared, or the full scheduled overs were bowled (limited overs). Totals from innings that were cut short (rain, a target reached, overs reduced) are marked as such.
  • Results: win, loss, tie, draw or no result as recorded by Cricsheet. Results decided by Duckworth–Lewis–Stern or another method are flagged ("D/L"). We do not compute DLS targets.

Phases (limited overs)

Fixed phases, the same for every year (the actual powerplay rules have changed over time; we use these simple fixed bands): - T20: powerplay overs 1–6, middle 7–15, death 16–20. - ODI: powerplay overs 1–10, middle 11–40, death 41–50. - The Hundred (5-ball sets): powerplay = first 25 balls, death = last 25 balls, middle = the rest. - Tests have no phases.

Venue averages

  • Average first-innings score: the mean of first-innings totals in completed matches not decided by a D/L method, counting only innings where the full scheduled overs were bowled or the team was bowled out. Rain-shortened innings are excluded because they would distort the average.
  • Average second-innings score: the mean of second-innings totals in the same matches (chases end when the target is reached, so this is usually lower than the first-innings average).
  • Win % batting first / chasing: share of matches with a result (ties and no results excluded) won by the side batting first or second.
  • Toss winner win %: share of matches with a result won by the toss winner.
  • Every venue average shows its sample size (number of matches).

Validation (the build fails if these fail)

  1. Batter runs + extras = team total, in every innings.
  2. Bowler wickets + other dismissals = wickets lost, in every innings.
  3. Balls faced by all batters = legal balls + no-balls; balls bowled = legal balls.
  4. Runs conceded by bowlers = total − byes − leg byes − penalty runs.
  5. No batter is dismissed twice in an innings; at most 10 dismissals per innings.
  6. Cross-checks against values Cricsheet records separately from the balls: the chase target equals the first-innings total + 1, the win margin by runs equals the run difference, and the win margin by wickets equals 10 − wickets lost. A handful of Cricsheet matches (about 0.05%) contain small scorer differences; we keep them as recorded, and publishing stops if the rate ever rises above 0.2%.
  7. Not-outs + dismissals = innings; averages, strike rates and economy rates are never negative.