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There's a lot more to a game of cricket than meets the eye, but before you can start getting a good understanding of ducks, golden ducks, googlies and the intricacies of the leg before wicket rule, you need a good grasp of maths just to tackle the scorecard. That's right, maths has its uses beyond the classroom and the exam hall. Sport, particularly cricket, is one of the many areas of life where an understanding of maths is very important.

Let's take a look at a NatWest International Triangular Series 50 over match between England and Australia in 2005. England won the toss and put Australia into bat first. Here's the scorecard for the Australian innings.

Batting

BATSMAN	Out	Bowler	Runs	Balls	4s	6s
A C Gilchrist	c G O Jones	b C T Tremlett	18	31	2	0
M L Hayden	c G O Jones	b A Flintoff	39	58	5	0
R T Ponting	c A F Giles	b S J Harmison	27	38	4	0
D R Martyn	not out		68	81	3	0
A Symonds	run out		73	81	4	2
M E K Hussey	c P D Collingwood	b A Flintoff	5	10	0	0
S R Watson	not out		11	7	1	0
EXTRAS		6nb 7w 12lb	25
TOTAL		for 5 wickets	266

It looks complicated at first glance, but let's break it down a bit. The first column is simple - it just gives the names of the batsmen. The second column describes how the batsman got out and the third column tells us who was bowling.

The last four columns are where the numbers start coming into play:

• Runs column - the number of runs each batsmen scored.
• Balls column - the number of balls each batsmen faced.
• 4s column - the number of times the batsman hit the ball to the boundary.
• 6s column - the number of times the batsmen hit the ball to the boundary without it bouncing first.

Total runs
To work out the total runs that Australia scored in their 50 overs is quite simple. We add up the number of runs scored by each individual batsman (18+39+27+68+73+5+11), plus the extras, scored as the result of errors by the bowlers, (there were 6 no-balls, 7 wides and 12 leg byes, totalling 25 extras) to arrive at a total of 266.

Run rate
We now know that in order to win the match, England need to score 267 runs in 50 overs. Batsmen like to know how many runs they need to score per over (on average) to win. We can work this out by using this formula:

Run rate = Number of runs needed / Number of overs remaining

England's required run rate = 267 / 50 = 5.34.

To win the match then, England need to score 267 runs at a rate of 5.34 runs per over. As there are 6 balls in every over, England need to score at a rate of just under a run per ball.

Before we go on to see whether they achieved this, let's look back at the Australian scorecard and see what else we can work out from it.

Batsman's strike rate
The top scorer was Symonds, who scored 73 runs from a total of 81 balls. With these facts, we can work out how quickly he scored his runs - his strike rate. In cricket, a batsman's strike rate shows how many runs he would have scored had he faced 100 balls.

Average runs per ball = (Number of runs scored / Number of balls faced)
Strike rate = Runs per ball x 100

Number of runs Symonds scored per ball = 73 / 81 = 0.9012345
Symonds' strike rate = 0.9012 x 100 = 90.12.

In 50 over cricket, 90.12 runs per 100 balls is a good strike rate. Can you work out how Symonds' strike rate compared to his team mates' strike rates?

Percentage of runs in boundaries
It's sometimes useful for a batsman to know what percentage of his runs were scored in boundaries (4s or 6s). To do this we use this formula:

So taking Ponting's innings as an example:

Bowling
It's not just the batsman who benefit from statistics about their performance. These can also be helpful to the bowlers to know what sort of game they've had. Below are the bowling figures for the England bowlers for the Australian innings.

Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Economy
D Gough	10.0	0	41	0
C T Tremlett	9.0	0	53	1
S J Harmison	9.0	2	44	1
A Flintoff	10.0	0	55	2
A F Giles	9.0	1	44	0
P D Collingwood	3.0	0	17	0

This table should be pretty self explanatory.

• First column - the name of the bowler.
• Second column - the number of overs that they bowled.
• Third column (maidens) - indicates how many overs they bowled in which no runs were scored.
• Fourth column (runs) - tells us how many runs the bowler conceded (the number of runs the batsmen managed to score while the bowler was bowling).
• Fifth column (wickets) - reveals how many wickets the bowler picked up - how many batsmen he managed to get out.
• Sixth column (economy) - has been left blank for you to fill in once you've read and understood the examples below.

Economy rate

A bowler's economy describes how many runs are scored on average in every over bowled by the bowler. In cricket, it's sometimes referred to as how expensive the bowler is, the lower the figure the better. To work out a bowler's economy rate we use this formula:

Economy rate = Number of runs conceded / Number of overs bowled

Gough's economy rate = 41 / 10 = 4.1

This means that the Australians scored an average of 4.1 runs from each of the overs bowled by Gough.

Collingwood's economy rate = 17 / 3 = 5.7

In cricketing terms, Collingwood was more expensive than Gough. Work out the economies of the remaining bowlers to see who proved to be the least expensive.

Bowler's strike rate
Of course, taking wickets (getting batsmen out) is also an important part of bowling in cricket. It can be very useful for the captain to know which of his bowlers is the most likely to take wickets. The usual practice is to work out how many balls the bowler bowls on average before he takes a wicket. This is called the bowler's strike rate. There are six balls in every over.

In this match then, it took Flintoff, on average, 30 balls to claim a wicket. Were any of the other England bowlers more effective than Flintoff?

Your chance
That's the Australian batsmen and the English bowlers covered so back to the match as a contest. Remember that England needed to score 267 runs to win the match at a rate of 5.34 runs per over. Did they manage it? Here's their scorecard.

BATSMAN	Out	Bowler	Runs	Balls	4s	6s
M E Trescothick	c A C Gilchrist	b G D McGrath	0	15	0	0
A J Strauss		b B Lee	3	13	0	0
V S Solanski	c R T Ponting	b G B Hogg	34	69	2	0
P D Collingwood		b G D McGrath	0	2	0	0
A Flintoff	c J N Gillespie	b G B Hogg	44	61	6	0
K P Pietersen	c M E K Hussey	b A Symonds	19	28	2	0
G O Jones	c M L Hayden	b S R Watson	23	31	2	0
A F Giles	c A Symonds	b B Lee	4	3	1	0
C T Tremlett	c M E K Hussey	b J N Gillespie	8	18	0	0
D Gough	not out		46	47	7	0
S J Harmison	not out		11	17	0	0
EXTRAS		4nb 5w 8lb	17
TOTAL		for 9 wickets	209

Unfortunately not. The number of runs scored by each batsman plus the extras adds up to a total of 209 runs altogether which is fewer than Australia managed to score.

Australia won the match, but by how much? Take away England's total from Australia's (266 - 209) and we get the answer 57. Australia scored 57 more runs than England managed to, so we can say that Australia won the match by 57 runs. As much as this was a pretty poor batting performance by the English team, it was also a very good bowling performance by the Australians. Work out each English batsman's and each Australian bowler's statistics to prove this.

Australia's bowling analysis

Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Economy
B Lee	10.0	2	27	2
G D McGrath	10.0	1	31	2
J N Gillespie	9.0	0	36	1
S R Watson	8.0	0	51	1
G B Hogg	6.0	0	19	2
A Symonds	7.0	0	37	1

It's easy to see that maths helps us to understand a lot more about cricket than just the final result. We can use it to give us knowledge about how individual players performed and how they could go about improving for the next match. And this has been just a brief introduction. There are many more ways that maths can help our understanding of cricket and lots of other sports.