How to Score a Cricket Match — A Beginner's Guide
Learn to score a cricket match: overs, runs, wides, no-balls, byes and leg-byes, which dismissals go to the bowler, fall of wickets and a worked over.
By The MyGully11 Team
6 min read
Scoring a cricket match comes down to recording every delivery: who bowled it, who faced it, how many runs came from it and whether those runs belong to the batter or are extras. Get four things right, which are legal balls, runs off the bat, extras and dismissals, and the scorecard writes itself.
This guide covers everything a first-time scorer at a gully or club match needs, with a worked over at the end.
Balls and overs
An over is six legal deliveries from the same bowler. Wides and no-balls are not legal deliveries, so they do not count towards the six and the bowler has to bowl that ball again. An over with one wide and one no-ball therefore has eight deliveries.
Overs are written as completed overs plus balls: 4.3 means four overs and three legal balls. It is not a decimal. After 4.5 comes 5.0, not 4.6.
A bowler cannot bowl two overs in a row. Most local tournaments also cap each bowler's overs, commonly one-fifth of the innings (four overs in a 20-over game). That cap is a playing condition your tournament sets, so check it before the toss.
Runs off the bat
When the batter hits the ball and the batters run, those runs go to the striker (the batter who faced the ball) and count against the bowler. A boundary along the ground is four; clearing the boundary on the full is six. If the batters run an odd number of runs, they swap ends, so the other batter faces the next ball. At the end of each over, the strike also changes because the bowling switches ends.
Extras: the part beginners get wrong
Extras are runs that are not credited to a batter. There are four common kinds, and the key questions are whether the ball counts in the over and whether the runs are charged to the bowler.
| Extra | Counts as a ball in the over? | Charged to bowler? | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wide | No | Yes | 1 run, plus any runs taken |
| No-ball | No | Yes | 1 run, plus any runs taken |
| Bye | Yes | No | None, just the runs taken |
| Leg-bye | Yes | No | None, just the runs taken |
A few details matter:
- Wides: every run scored off a wide is recorded as wides. If a wide beats the keeper and goes to the boundary, that is five wides.
- No-balls: if the batter hits a no-ball, the runs go to the batter, plus the one-run no-ball penalty as an extra. The bowler is charged with both. A batter faces the delivery, so it counts in the batter's balls faced even though it does not count in the over.
- Byes: the ball misses bat and body, and the batters run anyway (often when it beats the keeper).
- Leg-byes: the ball hits the batter's body, not the bat or the gloves holding the bat, and the batters run. Under the Laws, leg-byes are only allowed if the batter tried to play a shot or tried to get out of the way. If not, the umpire calls dead ball.
Because byes and leg-byes are not charged to the bowler, an over containing only byes can still be a maiden. Wides and no-balls, on the other hand, spoil a maiden.
Many box and tennis-ball tournaments change these rules, for example no run for a wide or two runs for a no-ball. Agree them before the first match; see wides and no-balls in local cricket.
Dismissals, and which ones the bowler gets
Not every wicket goes into the bowler's figures. Bowlers are credited with:
- Bowled
- Caught (write the fielder's name too)
- LBW
- Stumped (write the keeper's name)
- Hit wicket
These are not credited to the bowler:
- Run out (note the fielder or fielders involved)
- Obstructing the field
- Hit the ball twice
- Timed out
- Retired out
Also remember what can and cannot happen off extras. Off a no-ball, the striker cannot be bowled, caught, LBW, stumped or out hit wicket; run out is still possible. Off a wide, the batter cannot be bowled, caught or LBW, but can still be stumped, run out or out hit wicket.
A batter who retires hurt is not out and may come back later. In box cricket, where batters often "retire at 25" or similar, record it as retired, not out, unless your tournament rules say otherwise.
Fall of wickets
Each time a wicket falls, write down the team total at that moment, the wicket number and the over. The usual form is wicket–score, for example "1–10 (0.5 ov)", meaning the first wicket fell with 10 on the board in the fifth ball of the first over. On Indian TV you will often see the score first, 10/1; both mean the same thing. Fall of wickets is what tells the story of an innings, so do not skip it.
A worked over
Here is one over, ball by ball. The bowler sends down eight deliveries, but only six are legal.
| Delivery | What happened | Runs | Over count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dot ball | 0 | 0.1 |
| 2 | Driven for four | 4 | 0.2 |
| 3 | Wide down leg | 1 (wd) | still 0.2 |
| 4 | Single to cover | 1 | 0.3 |
| 5 | No-ball, batter hits two | 3 (1 nb + 2 bat) | still 0.3 |
| 6 | Hits pad, one leg-bye | 1 (lb) | 0.4 |
| 7 | Bowled! | 0, wicket | 0.5 |
| 8 | Two byes past the keeper | 2 (b) | 1.0 |
At the end of the over:
- Team total: 12 for 1 after 1 over.
- Runs off the bat: 7 (4 + 1 + 2).
- Extras: 5 (1 wide, 1 no-ball, 1 leg-bye, 2 byes).
- Bowler's figures: 1 over, 0 maidens, 9 runs, 1 wicket. That is the 7 off the bat plus the wide and the no-ball; the 3 byes and leg-byes are not his.
- Fall of wicket: 1–10 (0.5 ov).
Check your work the way a professional scorer does: batters' runs plus extras must equal the team total. Here 7 + 5 = 12.
Paper or app?
A paper scorebook is cheap and teaches you the logic. It also needs neat handwriting, a second person to cross-check, and someone to add up the bowling figures at the end. One missed wide and the totals stop agreeing.
A scoring app does the arithmetic for you. In MyGully11 the scorer taps each ball on a big keypad, wides and no-balls included, and the scorecard, bowling figures, fall of wickets and wagon wheel build themselves. It keeps recording with no signal and syncs when you are back in range, so a maidan with one bar is fine. Everyone following from home sees the same ball in the match centre, and the same live scoring feeds fantasy points. The free cricket scoring app page shows the scorer screens.
Running a whole event, not just one match? Read how to organise a gully cricket tournament, and when the points table gets tight, net run rate explained.
Frequently asked questions
Does a wide count as a ball in cricket?
No. A wide is not a legal delivery, so it does not count towards the six balls in the over and must be bowled again. One run is added as a wide, plus any runs the batters take, and all of it is charged to the bowler.
Are byes and leg-byes counted against the bowler?
No. Byes and leg-byes are extras that do not go into the bowler's runs conceded. They do count as legal deliveries, so they use up one of the six balls.
Which dismissals are credited to the bowler?
Bowled, caught, LBW, stumped and hit wicket. Run out, obstructing the field, hit the ball twice, timed out and retired out are not credited to the bowler.
How do you write the fall of wickets?
Record the wicket number, the team score and the over when it fell, such as 1–10 (0.5 ov). Many Indian scorecards write the score first, as 10/1.
Can I score a cricket match without internet?
Yes. Paper works anywhere, and MyGully11's scorer saves every ball to the phone first and syncs to the server when the connection returns, so you can score a full innings with no signal.