Cricket Scoresheet Bowling Figures Broadly Explained

The Cricket scoresheet can be a baffling document to the uninitiated so here's a quick look at the bowling figures you hear bandied about and why Stuart Broad is now one of their leading examples.

Cricket Bowling Figures

• Outs for runs
• Broad gets 6/17
• High outs, low runs
• Superb stats

The batting statistics on the Cricket scoresheet are almost self-explanatory. Certainly for those of you used to Major League Baseball the notation in any particular match that denotes just how the player was dismissed (gotten out) has a few more options than you're used to, however they're pretty much as you would expect for a game where you hit a ball thrown by someone else and run a lot.

The fours and sixes can be a bit of an issue, but easily understood. If the ball clears the boundary (the edge of the field) it's a four if it has touched the ground first, and a six if it has not. Sixes are the Cricket scoresheet version of home runs, if you will, and are often quite dramatic, depending on what damage the rather weighty ball does to whatever, or indeed whomever, gets hit by it.

The Cricket Scoresheet Isn't All About Batting

The confusion sets in, for many, when the Cricket scoresheet starts to record the bowling statistics, which are, at first sight, as confusing as UK gambling laws were before common sense asserted itself upon them. In general terms, however, this is quite straight forward as they're very rarely mentioned at all unless worthy of note, the poor spells more likely recorded as batting figures.


A bowler is judged by how many players of the opposition he can dismiss weighed against how many runs they scored during the same time. So a really good bowler might well get 4 guys out having only let them get just sixty three runs off his bowling, and that would be said as 4 for 63, or 4-63 as the Cricket scoresheet would have it. Those would be seen as very good figures for any bowler, but sometimes true miracles occur, as the poor South Africans can attest.

Broad Takes Six Wickets For Just Seventeen Runs

Stuart Broad pretty much single-handedly destroyed the South African side in the third test. His 6-17, yes, you read that right, was a wonder to behold, and those that like to bet on sports in the UK who'd backed the English to take the game (and by dint of that the series) couldn't have believed their luck when he never let any of the batsmen settle for long enough to get comfortable. Elgar, van Zyl, de Villiers, Amla and Bavuma all walked on, and then walked off just as quickly. Making Broad the number one ranked test bowler according to the ICC Player Rankings.

This reversed the cricket scoresheet and game entirely, and whilst the batting stats on the cricket scoresheet are usually a good indication of how a team is playing, the bowlers are the flipside of the coin and can't be ignored. The question now is should you back England at Bet365 to win the fourth test? It's irrelevant in terms of the Basil D'Oliveira trophy, England have the series in the bag, but you know South Africa will be after a bit of revenge and the English will want a clean sweep to take forward. Should be a great game and well worth wagering on.

Will South Africa's batsmen bounce back? Will Broad bowl another beauty? Or will you be Canada gambling news of Finn being injured will make England vulnerable? You'll have to put your money where your mouth is, won't you? You can get 6/4 on England and 13/8 on South Africa but I've a feeling the smart money will be on a draw at 11/4, as neither team will want to end on a loss before the One Day International series starts in February.