Overs to Balls Converter
An over is six legal deliveries, and cricket writes a part over with the balls after the decimal point. So 12.3 means twelve overs and three balls, which is 75 deliveries.
- As a decimal
- 12.500
- Written back
- 12.3 overs
What a run rate actually divides by
Balls = (whole overs × 6) + balls after the decimal point
It is not a decimal. There is no such thing as 12.7 overs, because the digit after the point can only run from 0 to 5. This is the single most common source of error in cricket arithmetic, because every rate divides by overs.
Why this breaks calculations
Take a bowler with 38 runs from 9.3 overs. Read as cricket notation that is 57 balls, or 9.5 decimal overs, and the economy rate is exactly 4.00. Read as a decimal it is 9.3, and the economy comes out at 4.09.
Two per cent does not sound like much until it is applied to every bowler on a scorecard, or to a career. Any spreadsheet that treats the overs column as a number rather than converting it first is producing figures that are close enough to look right and wrong enough to matter.
Converting in both directions
Overs to balls: multiply the whole number by six and add the digit after the point. 12.3 becomes 12 × 6 + 3 = 75.
Balls to overs: divide by six for the whole overs, and the remainder is the balls. 75 ÷ 6 is 12 remainder 3, so 12.3. For a rate, use the plain division instead — 75 ÷ 6 = 12.5 decimal overs.
What does and does not add a ball
A wide or a no-ball does not count as one of the six, so it is re-bowled and the over continues. Every other delivery counts, including a dot ball, a bye and a leg bye.
An over that is abandoned part-way — for rain, bad light or an injury — is completed by another bowler when play resumes, and the balls already bowled stay on the first bowler's figures.