Cricket can look like a maze of numbers to a first-time viewer. Runs, wickets, overs, extras — it all flashes across the screen at once. But once you know the basics, the game opens up fast.
## How Runs Are Scored
A team’s total score is simply the number of runs its batters accumulate. Runs come from:
– Running between the wickets after hitting the ball
– Boundaries — four runs if the ball crosses the rope after touching the ground, six if it clears the rope on the full
– Extras such as wides, no-balls, byes and leg-byes, which are added to the batting team’s total but not credited to any batter
## Wickets: The Other Half of the Story
A team doesn’t just chase runs — it also has to protect its wickets. Once ten batters are out (or the overs run out, depending on the format), the innings ends. Common dismissals include being bowled, caught, leg-before-wicket (LBW), stumped and run out.
## Overs and Formats
An over is six legal deliveries bowled by one bowler. The number of overs varies by format:
– Test cricket has no over limit and can run for five days
– One Day Internationals (ODIs) are capped at 50 overs per side
– T20 cricket is limited to 20 overs per side
Shorter formats reward aggressive batting, which is why metrics like strike rate matter so much in T20 and ODI cricket. If you want to understand how that’s measured, our guide on what strike rate means in cricket is a good next stop.
## Reading the Scoreboard
A score like “245/6 (48.2 overs)” means the batting side has scored 245 runs, lost 6 wickets, and faced 48.2 overs. The team batting second simply needs more runs than that target to win.
Once you’re comfortable with scoring, the next step is understanding what separates a steady accumulator from an explosive hitter — a debate we unpack in batting average vs strike rate. And if you want to see scoring taken to its extreme, check out our list of the fastest hundreds ever scored.
Cricket rewards patience over five days and pure aggression over three hours — and that range is exactly what makes it endlessly fascinating to follow.