Cricket Required Run Rate Calculator

Background.

The required run rate is the runs a chasing side needs per over for the rest of the innings: RRR = runs still required ÷ overs still remaining. It is the number on the scoreboard that governs every decision in the second innings of a limited-overs match, and this calculator returns it alongside the current run rate, the balls left, the wickets in hand and a projected finishing score.

Two details separate a correct required run rate from an approximate one, and this page handles both. The first is the target. Under ICC playing condition 16.1.1, "the side which has scored in its innings a total of runs in excess of that scored by the opposing side in its innings shall win the match" — in excess of, not equal to. Level scores are a tie, defined in clause 16.3.1.1 as occurring "when both innings have been completed and the scores are equal", and MCC Law 16.5.1 says the same. So chasing a total of 281 means needing 282. The mode select at the top of the widget exists because people arrive with one number or the other, and entering the opposition's total where the target belongs understates the requirement by exactly one run — which at the death is the whole match.

The second detail is the overs arithmetic. Cricket writes 32 overs and 4 balls as 32.4, which is 196 balls, which is 32.6667 overs. Subtracting 32.4 from 50 gives 17.6, a figure that corresponds to nothing: the true remainder is 300 − 196 = 104 balls, or 17.3333 overs. Calculators that subtract the scorecard figures directly are wrong for every part-over, and the error runs the wrong way — it makes the chase look easier than it is. This page converts both figures to balls at six to the over under MCC Law 17.1 and works in balls throughout.

A Duckworth/Lewis/Stern target needs a word of its own. When rain revises a chase, the DLS target published by the officials is already the runs-to-win figure — ICC clause 16.4.1.1 states that "the target set will always be a whole number and one run less will constitute a Tie". So a DLS target goes in on the 'target' setting, not the 'opposition total' setting, and adding one to it would be wrong.

The projected score is the output most people find most useful, because a rate is abstract and a score is not. It extends the current run rate to the end of the innings and tells you where the side lands if nothing changes. In the worked example below, a side needing 6.00 an over while scoring at 5.45 is projected to finish ten short — which reframes the question from "can we lift the rate by half a run" to "where do the extra ten runs come from", and those are much easier to plan around.

Read the required rate together with the wickets in hand. Eight an over with seven wickets standing is a normal modern chase; eight an over with two is close to hopeless. The rate tells you the speed, the wickets tell you the risk budget, and neither number means much on its own.

What is cricket required run rate calculator?

The required run rate is a forward-looking rate: it divides the runs a chasing side still needs by the overs it still has. Formally RRR = (target − current score) ÷ overs remaining, where the target is one more than the opposition's total and overs remaining is derived from balls rather than from the scoreboard's mixed notation. It is the mirror image of the current run rate, which looks backwards over the balls already bowled. In a chase the two rates converge on each other as the innings closes: every ball that passes moves the required rate up if the batting side falls behind and down if it gets ahead, and the smaller the remaining denominator the more violently the rate swings — which is why a required rate that has been stable at 7.00 for ten overs can jump to 12.00 in the space of two. The statistic has no equivalent in the first innings, where there is no target, and the corresponding first-innings question is answered by the projected score alone. Three conventions are worth knowing. Once the target has been passed the required rate is reported as zero rather than negative, because a negative required rate is not a cricket quantity. Before a legal ball has been bowled the current run rate is reported as zero, matching the scoreboard, because dividing by zero balls has no answer. And the calculation stops entirely when no balls remain: the innings is over, and there is no rate left to require.

How to use this calculator.

1. 01Choose what your number means. Pick 'the target' if you have the runs needed to win or a DLS target; pick 'the opposition's total' if you have their final score, and the calculator adds the one run that ICC clause 16.1.1 requires.
2. 02Enter the current score, including extras.
3. 03Enter the overs completed in scoreboard notation. 32 overs and 4 balls is 32.4, and the calculator converts it to 196 balls. Enter 0 to see the rate needed from the very start of the chase.
4. 04Enter the innings length — 50, 20, or the revised figure after a rain reduction. It must be a whole number of overs.
5. 05Enter the wickets lost so the calculator can show wickets in hand. The required rate and the wickets in hand are the two halves of every chase decision and should never be read apart.
6. 06Read the required run rate, then compare the projected score with the target. The shortfall in runs is usually easier to plan against than the gap in rates: 'we finish ten short at this pace' is a clearer brief than 'we need 0.55 more an over'.
7. 07Check 'balls remaining' in a close finish. Twelve needed off six balls and twelve needed off 1.4 overs sound similar and are not the same equation.

The formula.

Work in balls, not in the scoreboard's over notation, and everything else follows.

Start with the target. ICC playing condition 16.1.1 says the chasing side must score "a total of runs in excess of that scored by the opposing side", and clause 16.3.1.1 makes equal scores a tie. So the target is the opposition's total plus one: chasing 281 means needing 282. If the officials have set a Duckworth/Lewis/Stern target instead, that number is already the runs to win — clause 16.4.1.1: "the target set will always be a whole number and one run less will constitute a Tie" — and must not have one added to it. The mode select on this page is exactly that distinction.

Next, convert both overs figures to balls. An over is six balls under MCC Law 17.1, and the ICC conditions word clause 17.1 as "overs of 6 valid balls". An innings of 50 overs is 300 balls. A scoreboard reading of 32.4 is 6 × 32 + 4 = 196 balls. Balls remaining is 300 − 196 = 104, and overs remaining is 104 ÷ 6 = 17.3333. Note what happens if you subtract the scoreboard figures directly: 50 − 32.4 = 17.6, which is not a legal over figure at all (the ball digit cannot exceed 5) and is 0.27 of an over too large. Dividing by too large a denominator understates the required rate, so the naive method always flatters the chasing side.

Then the two rates. Runs required is target minus current score, floored at zero once the target has been passed. The required run rate is runs required divided by overs remaining. The current run rate is 6 × current score ÷ balls completed, which is reported as zero before the first legal ball because the denominator would otherwise be zero — the scoreboard does the same thing.

Finally the projection: current score plus current run rate times overs remaining. This is a deliberately naive extrapolation — it assumes the innings continues at exactly the rate achieved so far, which real chases never do, because sides accelerate at the death and lose wickets doing it. Its value is not as a forecast but as a reframing: it converts an abstract gap between two rates into a concrete number of runs, and a shortfall of ten runs is a far more actionable brief than a rate gap of 0.55.

One behaviour is a deliberate refusal rather than a computation. If overs completed equals or exceeds the innings length, there are no balls left and there is no required rate; the calculator raises an error instead of dividing by zero.

A worked example.

Frequently asked questions.

References& sources.

1. [1]International Cricket Council — ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 Playing Conditions (PDF). Clause 16.1.1: "Unless the winner is determined by DLS (see clause 16.4), the side which has scored in its innings a total of runs in excess of that scored by the opposing side in its innings shall win the match." Clause 16.3.1.1: "The result of a match shall be a tie when both innings have been completed and the scores are equal." Clause 16.4.1.1 on revised targets: "The target set will always be a whole number and one run less will constitute a Tie." Clause 13.6.1 limits an innings to 20 overs.
2. [2]International Cricket Council — ICC Men's One-Day International Playing Conditions, effective from July 2025 (PDF). Clause 13.6.1: "All matches will consist of one innings per side, each innings being limited to a maximum of 50 overs." Clause 17.1: "The ball shall be bowled from each end alternately in overs of 6 valid balls" — the basis for converting a scoreboard figure such as 32.4 into 196 balls.
3. [3]Marylebone Cricket Club — Laws of Cricket, Law 16 (The Result). Law 16.5.1 defines a tie as occurring "when all innings have been completed and the scores are equal", which is why the target of a chase is one run more than the opposition's total rather than equal to it.
4. [4]Marylebone Cricket Club — Laws of Cricket, Law 17 (The over). Law 17.1: "The ball shall be bowled from each end alternately in overs of 6 balls." Law 17.3.2 excludes no balls and wides from the six, so neither shortens the balls remaining in an innings.
5. [5]International Cricket Council — Men's ODI Match Clause 13: Innings. The ICC's HTML publication of the innings-length playing condition: clause 13.6 limits an innings to 50 overs and clause 13.9 caps a bowler at 10 of them.