A bowling scorecard represents the bowling performance of the fielding side. There is no restriction on the number of players who can bowl in an innings. However, in limited-overs cricket like One Day Internationals (50 overs) and T20 (20 overs) restriction apply. A bowler cannot bowl more than 10 overs in the One Day International format and more than 4 overs in the T20 format.
The uppermost bar of the bowling scorecard features the name of the team. Below is the name of the series, the number of the match in the series, and the order of the innings (first or second). For example, if India are bowling in the second innings against Australia, the scoreboard would read:
INDIA
PayTm ODI series 2nd ODI – 2nd innings
The main body of the bowling scorecard lists the names of the bowlers. Alongside their names are their statistics which are in a specific order. This order can be remembered by the acronym OMRWE which means Overs, Maidens, Runs, Wickets, Economy.
Let us understand these with an example bowling scorecard
BOWLER O M R W E
J Bumrah 10 2 47 3 4.70
M Shami 10 0 54 1 5.40
B Kumar 8 1 27 0 3.37
K Yadav 10 1 63 2 6.30
Y Chahal 9.2 0 39 2 4.23
Overs
This scoreboard shows that India has used five bowlers in the match. Three of them bowlers have bowled a full spell (completed their maximum quota of 10 overs as the match is in the One Day International format). The fifth bowler named Y Chahal has bowled 9.2 overs. This indicates that the batting side must have lost all their wickets because of which his over could not be completed. It may also mean that Y Chahal sustained an injury owing to him discontinuing with bowling. Chahal’ over can be completed by another player. Adding the number of overs bowled shows that the innings saw 47.2 overs being bowled.
Maiden
Maiden means an over where the bowler has not allowed the batting side to score a single run. Based on the scorecard above, we can see that J Bumrah has bowled two such overs.
Runs
This category sees the number of runs that each bowler has conceded. In the above statistic, we can see that K Yadav has given away most runs compared to his teammates. When we combine the runs of each of these bowlers, we get the total score of the batting side. In this case, we conclude that the batting side has scored 230 runs.
Wickets
This category shows the number of wickets taken by each bowler. In the above scenario, J Bumrah has taken the most wickets, followed by Yadav, Chahal and Shami. Combining the wickets taken by each bowler, we get the number 8. But this does not necessarily conclude that the batting side has lost 8 wickets. As we saw above, Chahal has not completed his over, meaning that the batting side has been bowled out. A side is considered bowled out only if 10 wickets have fallen. So, who took the remaining two wickets?
The remaining two wickets might have been the result of a batter retiring hurt due to an injury or if the batters were run out. If a batter is run out, it does not add to the individual statistic of the bowler.
Economy
Economy is equal to the number of runs given by the bowler divided by the number of overs bowled by him. It is the average number of runs that a bowler has given in each over. In this example, we can see that despite having not taken any wicket, B Kumar has contributed by being the most economical bowler. He has given away runs at an economy of a little over three runs per over.
Economy of a bowler indicates how easy did the batters find to score runs against a particular bowler. Usually, in the One Day International format, an economy between 4 to 5.5 is considered average. An economy below 4 is a remarkable statistic but an economy over 5.5 is considered expensive. But this scale changes in the T20 format. An economy of 5 to 7 is considered good, between 7 to 8 is average, and above 8 is expensive.
Thus, simply by looking at this body of the bowling scorecard, we understand that the batting side was all-out at a score of 230 in 47.2 overs. This is not the end of the bowling scorecard though.
Right below the bowlers’ statistics is a column called “Fall of Wickets,” (abbreviated as FoW). This shows that at what score of the batting side did each wicket fall. For example, let’s say the batting side lost their first wicket at the team total of 15 runs. Later, they lost their second wicket at a team total of 80 runs and so on. This can be represented in the FoW column as:
1-5 2-80 3-93 … and so on.
The bottom-most bar of the bowling scorecard is similar to the batting scorecard. It tells us about the number of extras, the total overs bowled, and the team total with the number of wickets fallen.
Extras: 14 Overs: 47.2 Runs: 230
In some bowling scorecards, as often seen in T20 cricket, another column can be seen alongside OMRWE. This is represented by D which means Dot balls. Dot balls are those deliveries where the batter has not scored a single run. Its importance is immense in faster formats of the game like T20 where batters usually aim to make the most of each delivery.
