DLS calculator
DLS explained
What is the DLS method?
Duckworth–Lewis–Stern, the way a fair target is set when rain shortens a limited-overs match. Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis devised it, and Steven Stern updated it in 2014. It weighs what each side had left to bat with, overs and wickets together, rather than overs alone.
How is a DLS target worked out?
Each side’s overs and wickets in hand are its resources, as a share of a full 50-over innings. Twenty overs with no wicket down is 56.6%, and the same 20 overs with five down is 38.6%. When the chase has fewer resources than the first innings had, the first innings score is scaled down by the ratio and one run added. Score 250 in 50 overs, and a chase cut to 40 overs (89.3%) needs 224.
What is the par score?
What the chasing side needs to have to be ahead if no more play is possible. If rain ends the match with them above par, they win; below it, they lose; level, it’s a tie. Par moves with every ball, as the overs left and wickets down change.
Why do wickets matter as well as overs?
Wickets in hand are what let a side cut loose later on. Losing overs costs a side with ten wickets left more than one with three left, so a chase that stops at 10 for 0 has its target cut further than one that stops at 10 for 7.
What happens when the side batting first loses overs?
Their score is set against the overs and wickets they had when rain came, so a side cut short with wickets in hand had fewer resources than the full overs suggest. If the chase then gets more resources than they had, the target goes up by the average 50-over score times the extra share: 245 runs for men’s sides, and 200 for women’s, Associate and under-19 sides. A side making 180 in an innings cut from 50 overs to 40 at 79 for 3 leaves a target of 185 in 40 overs.
How many overs make a rain-hit match?
The chasing side has to face five overs in a T20 and 20 in an ODI, unless they are bowled out or reach the target sooner. Short of that, it’s no result.
Why can an official DLS target differ from this one?
Official targets come from the Professional Edition of DLS, software the ICC gives match officials, and its tables aren’t published. This calculator uses the Standard Edition, the ICC’s published version. Against the rain-hit matches where we know when play stopped, it came within five runs of the official target in 90 of 102 T20s and 38 of 59 one-day matches, usually a run or two under. The gap is widest after a big first innings, such as 300 or more in a one-day match.