What does 245/6 mean in cricket?

245/6 means the batting team has scored 245 runs and lost 6 wickets. The remaining 4 batters are still yet to bat (a team has 11 players, with 10 wickets to fall).

How do you read a cricket scorecard?

A cricket scorecard lists each batter's name, how they were dismissed, who dismissed them, and how many runs they scored. It also shows each bowler's figures: overs bowled, maidens, runs conceded, and wickets taken.

What does 'DNB' mean on a cricket scorecard?

DNB stands for Did Not Bat — meaning that batter was in the squad but did not come out to bat because the innings ended before they were needed.

How to Read Cricket Scores: A Complete Beginner's Guide

A cricket score written as Runs/Wickets — for example, 312/7 — tells you a team has scored 312 runs and lost 7 wickets in their innings. Once you understand this core notation and learn a handful of common abbreviations, any live score, scorecard, or TV graphic becomes immediately readable.

The Core Notation: Runs/Wickets

Cricket shows scores in the format R/W, where:

R = total runs scored by the batting team so far
W = number of batters dismissed (wickets fallen)

A team has 11 players and an innings ends when 10 wickets fall (the 11th batter has no partner). So a score of 10/0 means 10 runs scored with no one out, while 300/10 means the innings is over (all out) for 300 runs.

Some regions write it the opposite way — W/R — especially in parts of South Asia (e.g. 7/312). Context makes it clear.

Reading a Live Score

When you see a live score like this:

England 187/4 (38.2 ov)

It means:

England has scored 187 runs
They have lost 4 wickets
They have faced 38.2 overs (38 complete overs plus 2 balls of the 39th)

Format Differences

Format	Innings	Overs per side	Max duration
Test match	2 per team	Unlimited	5 days
One Day International (ODI)	1 per team	50	~8 hours
T20	1 per team	20	~3 hours

In Test cricket, a team can be asked to follow on (bat again immediately) if they trail by a large margin in the first innings. The score is then shown across both innings combined.

Reading a Scorecard

A full scorecard has two halves: batting and bowling.

Batting Scorecard

Batter	Dismissal	Bowler	Runs	Balls	4s	6s	SR
A. Smith	c sub b Jones	Jones	74	98	8	1	75.5
B. Kumar	b Ahmed	Ahmed	3	9	0	0	33.3
C. Ali	not out	—	51	60	4	2	85.0

c sub b Jones = caught by the substitute fielder, bowled (credited) to Jones
b Ahmed = bowled by Ahmed
not out = still batting when the innings ended
SR = strike rate (runs per 100 balls faced)

Common Dismissal Abbreviations

Abbreviation	Meaning
b	Bowled
c	Caught
lbw	Leg before wicket
run out	Run out
st	Stumped
hit wicket	Hit wicket
DNB	Did not bat
ret hurt	Retired hurt

Bowling Scorecard

Bowler	O	M	R	W	Econ
Jones	10	2	42	3	4.20
Ahmed	8	0	55	1	6.87

O = overs bowled
M = maiden overs (overs where no runs were scored)
R = runs conceded
W = wickets taken
Econ = economy rate (runs per over)

Multi-Innings Scores in Tests

In a Test, you may see something like:

Australia 1st innings: 456 | England 1st innings: 281 | Australia 2nd innings: 203/5 declared

This means Australia’s second innings was declared closed at 203 for 5 (they chose to end the innings voluntarily to allow time to bowl England out).

Target and Required Run Rate

In limited-overs cricket, you will often see a target and required run rate (RRR):

Target: 287 | Required: 68 off 42 balls | RRR: 9.71

This tells you the chasing team needs 68 more runs off 42 remaining balls, needing nearly 10 runs per over.

Quick summary: Cricket scores show Runs/Wickets (e.g. 241/6). The full scorecard lists how each batter was dismissed, their runs, balls and boundary count, plus each bowler’s overs, maidens, runs, and wickets. Once you know the abbreviations and format differences across Test, ODI, and T20 cricket, any scorecard becomes straightforward to interpret.