Run Rate and Required Run Rate Explained, With Worked Examples
Edited by Nayan Makvana · Last reviewed 24 October 2026
Every live scorecard of a limited-overs chase shows two numbers: the current run rate (CRR) and the required run rate (RRR). Both are runs per over and both are short calculations, provided one piece of notation is handled correctly. This guide explains that notation, works through both rates with examples and shows how to use them to follow a chase. If you only need an answer, the required run rate calculator does the arithmetic and shows its working.
How overs are written
An over is six legal deliveries. Scorecards write overs as completed overs, a dot, then balls, so 19.4 overs means 19 overs and 4 balls, not nineteen and four-tenths. In balls that is 19 × 6 + 4 = 118, and as a number of overs it is 118 ÷ 6 = 19.667. The figure after the dot only ever runs from 0 to 5: the ball after 19.5 completes the over and the count becomes 20.0. Wides and no-balls are not legal deliveries, so they add runs without moving the overs figure on.
| Written after the dot | Balls | Fraction of an over |
|---|---|---|
| .1 | 1 | 0.167 |
| .2 | 2 | 0.333 |
| .3 | 3 | 0.5 |
| .4 | 4 | 0.667 |
| .5 | 5 | 0.833 |
The safest habit is to convert everything to balls before dividing. It avoids the decimal trap entirely and turns balls remaining into a simple subtraction.
Current run rate
Worked example (invented figures): a side is 172 for 4 after 31.4 overs. That is 31 × 6 + 4 = 190 balls, so the run rate is 172 ÷ 190 × 6 = 5.43 an over. Dividing by 31.4 as if it were a decimal gives 5.48, which is wrong. The same calculation applied to a bowler's runs conceded gives their economy rate.
Required run rate
The target is one run more than the side batting first scored, or a revised target if rain has shortened the match. Balls remaining are the innings' full allocation (300 in an ODI, 120 in a T20) minus the legal balls already bowled.
Worked example: a 50-over chase
Example with invented figures: the side batting first makes 285, so the target is 286 from 50 overs. The chasing side is 172 for 4 after 31.4 overs.
- Runs needed: 286 − 172 = 114.
- Balls bowled: 31 × 6 + 4 = 190. Balls remaining: 300 − 190 = 110, which a scorecard would show as 18.2 overs.
- Overs remaining as a number: 110 ÷ 6 = 18.333.
- Required run rate: 114 ÷ 18.333 = 6.22 an over, the same as 114 ÷ 110 × 6.
The usual slip is to divide by 18.2, which gives 6.26. The error looks small here but grows as the overs run down. Needing 20 from 2.4 overs (16 balls), the correct rate is 20 ÷ 16 × 6 = 7.50; dividing by 2.4 gives 8.33.
Worked example: the end of a T20 chase
Example with invented figures: chasing 181 in a T20, a side is 98 for 3 after 12.3 overs, which is 75 balls. It needs 83 more from the remaining 45 balls.
- Current rate: 98 ÷ 75 × 6 = 7.84.
- Required rate: 83 ÷ 45 × 6 = 11.07.
- Per ball: 83 ÷ 45 = 1.84 runs a ball, a batting strike rate of about 184.
Late in a T20 innings commentators often skip rates altogether and say "83 off 45", because balls are easier to picture than fractions of an over.
Reading a chase
- Compare the two rates. If the required rate is above the current rate, the chasing side needs to score faster from here than it has so far. That is arithmetic, not a forecast: sides often plan to accelerate later.
- Watch which way the requirement moves. An over that yields more than the required rate pulls the requirement down; one that yields less pushes it up, and the push grows as overs run out. Needing 60 from 10 overs (6.00 an over), a maiden leaves 60 from 9, or 6.67. Needing 12 from 2 overs (also 6.00), a maiden leaves 12 from 1.
- Count wickets as well as runs. Neither rate knows how many wickets are left, and a side needing 9 an over with eight wickets in hand can take risks that a side with two left cannot. The DLS method is built on that point, which is why the DLS par score is a better guide than the run rate when rain may cut a match short.
- Treat projected scores as extrapolations. A projected total is normally the current run rate multiplied out to the end of the innings, sometimes shown alongside a few faster rates. It assumes the rest of the innings goes the way the first part did.
- Extras help the chasing side twice. A wide or no-ball adds a run without using up a legal ball, and in limited-overs internationals a no-ball also brings a free hit. The no-ball and wide guide has the details.
When rain changes the target
If overs are lost, both the target and the balls remaining change, and the required rate has to be recalculated from the revised figures. Using the illustrative numbers from our DLS guide: a side that is 90 for 2 after 20 overs is given a revised target of 201 from 35 overs. It now needs 111 from the 15 overs left, a required rate of 7.40, whatever the rate was before the rain.
Run rates in Test cricket
Tests show run rates too, but with no fixed number of overs in an innings they mean something different. A side's rate mainly tells you how much time it is leaving its bowlers to take twenty wickets. The required rate matters in a fourth-innings chase, when the time left in the match can be turned into an approximate number of overs and a captain weighs whether to go for the target. The follow-on and declarations guide covers that calculation.
Related numbers
- Net run rate, the tournament tie-breaker, is built from run rates scored and conceded across all of a side's matches. See net run rate explained or the net run rate calculator.
- Strike rate is a batter's runs per 100 balls and economy rate a bowler's runs conceded per over. Both are explained in batting average, strike rate and economy, and the batting and bowling average calculator works them out from a player's figures.