A bowling average calculator divides runs conceded by wickets taken. That single number is the oldest measure of a cricket bowler, and on its own it is not enough — which is why this page computes the economy rate and the strike rate from the same three inputs, since the three together describe a spell in a way that no one of them can.
Arb Digital publishes a free tools library. Note that "average" means something entirely different in cricket than it does in baseball: a cricket bowling average is runs per dismissal and lower is better, while a baseball batting average is a success rate between zero and one where higher is better. The two are not comparable quantities and the shared word causes endless confusion.
What This Bowling Average Calculator Does
It takes runs, wickets and overs and returns the three standard measures, handling the overs notation correctly.
Bowling average is runs conceded per wicket taken. It answers: how expensive is each wicket this bowler gets?
Economy rate is runs conceded per over. It answers: how much does this bowler leak while bowling, regardless of wickets?
Strike rate is balls bowled per wicket. It answers: how often does this bowler take one?
The page also converts a scorebook overs figure into balls properly, reports how many further wickets at the same runs would bring the average to a target you set, and lets you add a new spell to a running total without recomputing anything by hand.
How to Use It
- Enter overs in cricket notation. 118.4 is 118 overs and 4 balls, not 118.67 overs. Typing a decimal fraction of an over is the single most common error in bowling arithmetic and it makes economy rates look better than they are.
- Charge the bowler only what belongs to them. Runs off the bat, wides and no-balls count against the bowler. Byes and leg byes do not, because the bowler did not concede them.
- Count only credited wickets. Bowled, caught, leg before wicket, stumped and hit wicket go to the bowler. Run outs, obstruction and retirements do not.
- Set balls per over to match the era. Six is standard now, but eight-ball overs were used in Australia and New Zealand for long stretches of the twentieth century and historical figures need it.
- Read all three numbers together. An average alone hides whether a bowler is cheap and slow to strike or expensive and quick to strike, and those are very different bowlers.
The Formula: How Bowling Figures Are Calculated
Overs to balls. balls = whole overs × balls per over + part-over balls. This is the step that has to happen first, because everything downstream depends on it and the scorebook notation is not a decimal.
Bowling average. average = runs ÷ wickets. Undefined with no wickets, which is why career figures for a wicketless bowler are shown as a dash rather than as infinity.
Economy rate. economy = runs ÷ (balls ÷ balls per over), that is, runs per notional complete over.
Strike rate. strike rate = balls ÷ wickets.
The identity linking them. average = economy × strike rate ÷ balls per over. This is not a coincidence — it falls straight out of the definitions, and it is why the three numbers can never move independently. Improve your economy without changing your strike rate and your average falls in exact proportion.
The definitions of a wicket, an over and what is charged to a bowler all come from the Laws of Cricket, of which the MCC is the custodian, and the format-specific playing conditions published by the ICC, whose bowling rankings are built on these same measures.
Worked example, matching the values this page loads with. 412 runs, 18 wickets, 118.4 overs. First the balls: 118 × 6 + 4 = 712 balls. The average is 412 ÷ 18 = 22.89. The economy is 412 ÷ (712 ÷ 6) = 412 ÷ 118.67 = 3.47. The strike rate is 712 ÷ 18 = 39.6 balls per wicket. Check the identity: 3.47 × 39.6 ÷ 6 = 22.9, which matches. Adding a spell of 3 for 24 from 8.2 overs gives 436 runs, 21 wickets and 762 balls, for an average of 20.76.
Why Three Numbers Instead of One
Two bowlers with identical averages can be completely different propositions, and the other two numbers are what tell them apart.
Consider a bowler averaging 25 with an economy of 2.5 and a strike rate of 60, and another averaging 25 with an economy of 5.0 and a strike rate of 30. The first is a containing bowler who takes wickets slowly by building pressure. The second is an attacking bowler who buys wickets. In a five-day match the second may be the more valuable, because taking twenty wickets is the only way to win. In a twenty-over match the first is far more valuable, because runs conceded are the currency and there is no time for a strike rate to pay off.
This is why the relative weight given to each measure differs so much by format. Test cricket cares most about average and strike rate. Limited-overs cricket cares most about economy. A bowler selected on the wrong measure for the format is a familiar selection error.
It is also why a bowling average alone should never be compared across formats. The same bowler will have a substantially different average in a first-class match and a twenty-over match, and neither number is wrong.
What a Bowling Average Cannot Tell You
The arithmetic is exact, and the interpretation is where care is needed.
It says nothing about when the wickets came. Three tail-end wickets in a lost cause and three top-order wickets in a tight chase count identically, and they are not equally valuable.
Conditions are absent. Bowling averages are heavily shaped by pitch, weather, ball and era. Comparing a bowler's average across countries, decades or ball types without acknowledging that is meaningless.
Small samples are volatile. A bowler with four career wickets has an average that a single expensive spell can move by ten. Statistical qualification thresholds exist in ranking systems precisely because of this.
Pressure created is invisible. A bowler who bowls fifteen tight overs and takes nothing may be the reason wickets fell at the other end. Nothing in these three numbers captures that.
Byes and leg byes vanish. Runs the bowler is not charged with still appeared on the scoreboard and still cost the team.
Getting the Overs Notation Right
The single largest source of error in bowling calculations is treating overs as an ordinary decimal, and it is worth spelling out why it matters.
An entry of 10.3 overs means ten overs and three balls, which is 63 balls, or 10.5 complete overs. Treated as the decimal 10.3, it becomes 61.8 balls — a 2% error. Over a career the error compounds and always in the same direction, because the fractional part of an over is systematically overstated by decimal treatment for any part-over of four or five balls and understated for one or two.
The same applies in reverse. If a source gives you a bowler's balls bowled and you want overs, divide by six and express the remainder as the digit after the point, not as a fraction. 712 balls is 118.4 overs, not 118.67.
Historical figures add a further trap: eight-ball overs were used in Australia from the 1920s and in New Zealand for parts of the twentieth century. An economy rate computed on six-ball assumptions from eight-ball overs is wrong by a third. The balls-per-over input exists for exactly this.
If you want the general arithmetic rather than the cricket version, the weighted average calculator and ratio calculator handle means and ratios directly, and the percentage calculator covers percentage change between two figures.
Arb Digital builds fast, dependency-free calculators and interactive tools that load instantly, rank in search and keep visitors reading.
Browse the Free Tools Talk to Arb DigitalCommon Mistakes to Avoid
- Treating overs as a decimal — 118.4 overs is 712 balls, not 118.67 overs' worth, and the error runs through economy and strike rate alike.
- Charging byes and leg byes to the bowler — they count against the team but not against the bowler's figures.
- Counting run outs as wickets — only dismissals credited to the bowler go into the average.
- Comparing averages across formats — the same bowler's average in a first-class match and a twenty-over match are different quantities with different meanings.
- Reading an average without a strike rate — two bowlers averaging the same can be a containing bowler and an attacking bowler, and the difference matters enormously by format.
- Using six-ball assumptions on historical eight-ball figures — the economy rate comes out a third too low.
Related Free Tools From Arb Digital
The batting average calculator covers the baseball statistic that shares the name but not the meaning, and the earned run average calculator is the closest baseball equivalent to a bowling average. The winning percentage calculator handles team records. For the general arithmetic, see the weighted average calculator, the ratio calculator and the percentage calculator. Everything else is in the free online tools hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
Divide the runs conceded by the wickets taken. 412 runs for 18 wickets is 412 divided by 18, or 22.89. Unlike a baseball batting average, lower is better, and it is a rate of runs per dismissal rather than a success percentage.
Average is runs per wicket, economy is runs per over, and strike rate is balls per wicket. They answer three different questions — how expensive each wicket is, how much a bowler leaks while bowling, and how often wickets come — and they are linked by the identity that average equals economy times strike rate divided by balls per over.
Exactly as written. In cricket notation the digit after the point is a count of balls, not a fraction, so 118.4 means 118 complete overs plus 4 balls, which is 712 balls at six per over. Treating it as the decimal 118.67 is the most common error in bowling arithmetic.
Yes. Wides and no-balls count as runs conceded by the bowler. Byes and leg byes do not, because the bowler did not concede them — the ball passed the bat or struck the batter without the bowler being at fault, so they are charged to the team total only.
Lower is better within the statistic, but it is not the whole picture. A bowler with an excellent average and a poor strike rate takes wickets slowly, which matters in a match that has to be won by taking twenty of them. And an average alone hides when the wickets came and against which batters.
They were used in Australia from the 1920s and in New Zealand for periods of the twentieth century. Set the balls-per-over field to eight when working with those figures, or the economy rate comes out roughly a third too low because the calculation assumes fewer balls per over than were actually bowled.
Because you have taken no wickets, and dividing by zero has no answer. A bowler who has conceded runs without taking a wicket has no bowling average at all, which is why scorecards show a dash rather than a number in that situation.
