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Cricket Follow-On Calculator
The Cricket Follow-On Calculator checks whether a team's first-innings lead meets the runs threshold required under Law 14 of the Laws of Cricket to enforce the follow-on. It accounts for match length (five-day, four-day, three-day, two-day, or one-day matches) and automatically adjusts the threshold when full days have been lost to weather or delay. Use it to instantly check follow-on eligibility from two first-innings scores rather than looking up the runs table by hand.
Batting Strike Rate Calculator
The Batting Strike Rate Calculator works out a cricket batter's scoring rate from runs scored and balls faced, expressed as runs per 100 balls. It supports a format selector for Test, ODI, and T20 cricket, rating the result against realistic benchmarks for that specific format. Use it to judge how aggressively a batter scored in an innings, or to compare scoring intent across formats where the same raw number means something very different.
Bowling Average Calculator
The Bowling Average Calculator works out a cricket bowler's runs conceded per wicket taken, the standard measure of bowling effectiveness where a lower number is better. It supports a format selector for Test, ODI, and T20 cricket, rating the result against realistic benchmarks for that format, and also derives economy rate and implied strike rate when overs bowled are entered. Use it to judge a bowler's efficiency, or to see how average, economy, and strike rate connect mathematically.
Duckworth Lewis Calculator Logic
What Is the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern Method?
The Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method resets the target score in a limited-overs cricket match interrupted by rain or another stoppage, using a fairer basis than simply scaling by overs lost. Introduced in 1997 by statisticians Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis and adopted by the ICC in 1999, the method was updated by Steven Stern in 2014, adding his name to what's now called DLS.
According to ESPNcricinfo, the core idea is that a batting side has two combined resources at any point in an innings, overs remaining and wickets in hand, and DLS compares the percentage of that combined resource each team actually had, rather than treating overs and wickets as separate, unrelated factors.
Standard Edition vs. Professional Edition: Which This Calculator Uses
There are two versions of DLS in active use, and the distinction matters for how much precision to expect from any calculator, including this one. The Standard Edition uses a single, publicly available resource table intended for club and amateur cricket. The Professional Edition, used in international matches, runs on a more complex model whose exact resource table ICC has kept confidential for commercial reasons.
This calculator applies the public DLS target formula directly to resource percentages you enter, the same figures shown on a broadcast when officials announce a revised target, rather than attempting to derive those percentages internally from overs and wickets. That keeps the math exact regardless of which edition generated the percentages, since the target formula itself is identical across both.
The DLS Target Formula
Once both teams' resource percentages are known, the formula splits into two cases. If Team 2's resources are less than or equal to Team 1's, the target scales down proportionally: Team 1's score multiplied by Team 2's resource percentage, divided by Team 1's, plus 1. If Team 2 ends up with more resources than Team 1 had, the target instead increases using a constant called G50, the average score expected from a team batting first in a full, uninterrupted 50-over match.
G50 varies by competition level, 245 for men's international cricket, 200 for women's ODIs and matches between ICC associate members, which is exactly why this calculator includes a selector for it.
A Reference Table: How Resources Decay by Overs and Wickets
The original, publicly documented Standard Edition table gives a sense of how resource percentage falls as overs are used and wickets fall. According to Wikipedia's entry on the DLS method, a sample of published values looks like this:
| Overs Remaining | 10 Wickets | 6 Wickets | 2 Wickets |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 100.0% | 62.7% | 11.9% |
| 40 | 89.3% | 59.5% | 11.9% |
| 30 | 75.1% | 54.1% | 11.9% |
| 20 | 56.6% | 44.6% | 11.9% |
| 10 | 32.1% | 28.3% | 11.4% |
This table is illustrative of the shape of the curve rather than a complete lookup, the full Standard Edition table covers every over and wicket combination, and the confidential Professional Edition table used internationally differs slightly from these published Standard Edition figures. A match interrupted this early in an innings is also exactly the kind of situation where our Cricket Follow-On Calculator becomes relevant too, since both tools deal with how match length changes what's fair for each side.
Why Targets Can Rise When a Match Gets Shorter
This is the single most counterintuitive part of DLS for newer fans, and it happens whenever the team batting second gets a reduced innings but keeps most of its wickets intact. Since resource combines overs and wickets rather than treating overs alone, a shorter chase with 10 wickets in hand can represent more combined resource, relative to what's left, than the same overs count would suggest on its own.
That's exactly the scenario the increased-target branch of the formula, using G50, exists to handle. A batting side chasing a DLS-adjusted target under pressure needs a very different scoring pace than a normal run chase, and our Batting Strike Rate Calculator can help work out exactly how quickly a batter needs to score to keep pace with a compressed chase.
The Most Common DLS Misunderstanding
The mistake I see most often is assuming DLS simply scales the target down by the percentage of overs lost, treating a 20% reduction in overs as an automatic 20% reduction in target. With that in mind, resource percentage and overs percentage are related but not identical, since wickets in hand shift the resource figure independently of overs remaining. Always work from the actual announced resource percentages rather than estimating from overs alone, especially once wickets have started falling.
Frequently Asked Questions
Muhammad Shahbaz Siddiqui
Founder, TheCalculatorsHub
How verifying a broadcast DLS target myself settled an argument during a rain delay
Watching a rain-interrupted match with a group of friends, the broadcast flashed up a revised target that looked wrong to nearly everyone in the room. Team 1 had scored 280, and after the delay Team 2's target came back at 204 off a reduced 32 overs. One friend was convinced the graphic had glitched, since 204 felt far too low compared to the original 280.
The broadcast had shown Team 1's resources at 100% and Team 2's at 72.6% before the interruption cut into their innings. Running those two figures through this calculator's formula, 280 multiplied by 72.6 divided by 100, gave a par score of 203.28, and adding the standard plus-one gave a target of exactly 204, matching the graphic precisely. According to ESPNcricinfo, DLS scales the target by the ratio of each side's resources rather than overs alone, which is exactly why a number that looks like a big drop from 280 can still be mathematically correct once wickets and overs are combined properly.
I talked the group through the arithmetic there on the spot, and the graphic turned out to be right all along, no glitch, just an unfamiliar formula. It settled the argument faster than anyone expected, and a couple of the group started checking DLS numbers themselves after that instead of assuming the broadcast had made an error.