Scoring (cricket) - Winning Scores

Winning Scores

In limited over matches (one innings matches), the team that scores more runs wins. So if team A scored 250 from 50 overs with the loss of 1 wicket (250–1), then the target for team B is to get 251. The number of wickets that has fallen doesn't affect which team has won. So if team B scored 251 but with the loss of 9 wickets (251–9), team B still won because it scored more runs, even though it lost more wickets. In a similar situation if team A scored 250/1, but team B scored 240 (all out), then team A would win because it scored more runs. Part way through a limited over match, in order to judge the likely final scores, it is important to know, in addition to runs already scored and wickets already lost, how many overs each side has remaining, so this is always quoted.

In limited over matches shortened by bad weather, the winning team is the one whose scoring is best according to the targets set by the Duckworth-Lewis method. The method used to set targets takes into account both the number of overs and the number of wickets lost.

In First-class cricket (two innings match), the team that scores more runs, having dismissed its opponents twice, is the winner. An example would be: Team A scored 240 in their first innings, and Team B made 225 in reply. Team A then made 300 for 7 in their second innings, declaring it closed (they might do this because there was not much time left in the match and wanted to have time to dismiss team B and win rather than draw the game). Team A would be setting team B a target of 316 to win. If, in the second innings, team B only scored 250 (indeed anything less than 315) then team A would be the winner. If, on the other hand, team B scored 316–9, team B would be the winner. If time or the weather prevents the opposing side's being dismissed twice, the game is a draw, even if one side has scored more than the other. There is no equivalent of Duckworth-Lewis in these matches.

In cricket the term draw only refers to a match which does not reach a conclusion, usually through a lack of time. The term used in cricket to refer to the rare occurrence of two teams getting exactly the same score is a tie. A recent example of a tie was the Friends Provident Trophy match between Somerset and Hampshire on 18 May 2007. Both teams batted out their 50 overs, Somerset scored 220–6 and Hampshire scored 220–9.