Duckworth-Lewis (DLS) Calculator
Team 1 posts 280 in a rain-free 50 overs. Rain then wipes out part of Team 2's chase, leaving them 20 overs and 4 wickets down when play resumes. A straight run-rate comparison cannot fairly settle that match, because overs and wickets remaining are worth different amounts at different stages of an innings. This calculator estimates a Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) style par score and revised target for that kind of interruption, using the publicly published resource-percentage method. Enter Team 1's final score and the overs they had available, then enter how many overs remain for Team 2 and how many wickets they had lost at the point you want to check. The calculator looks up each team's batting resources as a percentage, scales Team 1's score by the ratio of resources remaining, and reports a par score and the run total Team 2 needs to be ahead. This is a real, if simplified, piece of cricket math, not a novelty. Broadcasters, fans, and coaches reach for a DLS-style number constantly once rain starts falling, and the resource-percentage idea behind it, that batting resources deplete faster than overs alone suggest once wickets start falling, is worth understanding on its own. Read the limitations section below before using this for anything beyond estimation, since the version implemented here is not the exact match-legal calculation the ICC uses.
Quick answer
A team's batting resources are a combined measure of overs remaining and wickets in hand, expressed as a percentage of a full, uninterrupted innings.
Revised target
125 runs to win
Par score
124
Team 1 resources
100%
Team 2 resources
44.6%
What this tells you
- •A team's batting resources are a combined measure of overs remaining and wickets in hand, expressed as a percentage of a full, uninterrupted innings.
- •Losing wickets reduces resources faster than losing overs alone, since fewer batsmen left to come in means less scoring potential even with plenty of overs still available.
- •Team 2's par score equals Team 1's score multiplied by the ratio of Team 2's resources to Team 1's resources.
- •The revised target to win is the par score plus one run, the same as any normal cricket chase.
- •A team with all 10 wickets down has zero resources left no matter how many overs remain, since there is nobody left to bat.
- •This tool uses the older, publicly documented Standard Edition resource table. It is not the confidential Professional Edition table the ICC uses in real internationals today.
How to Use
- 1Enter Team 1's final score, the total runs they posted in their innings.
- 2Enter the overs Team 1 had available for their innings. Use 50 for a standard uninterrupted ODI, or a lower number if their innings was reduced before it started.
- 3Enter the overs remaining for Team 2 at the point in the chase you want to check, meaning how many overs are left for them to bat.
- 4Enter how many wickets Team 2 had lost at that same point.
- 5Click Calculate to see each team's resource percentage, the par score, and the revised target Team 2 needs to beat.
How It Works
Formula
Par score = Team1 score x (Team2 resources / Team1 resources), target = par score + 1The Standard Edition DLS method assigns every combination of overs remaining and wickets lost a batting resource percentage, running from 100% at the very start of a full innings down to 0% when either overs or wickets run out. Team 1's resources are read at the overs they had available with all 10 wickets in hand, since their innings is treated as played out without a mid-innings interruption. Team 2's resources are read at whatever overs remain and however many wickets they have lost at the point being checked. Multiplying Team 1's score by the ratio of Team 2's resources to Team 1's resources rescales the target to account for however much batting opportunity Team 2 actually has left, and adding one run to that par score gives the total Team 2 needs to win outright. For example, if Team 1 scored 280 with full resources (100%) and Team 2 has 44.6% of their resources left, the par score is 280 x (44.6 / 100) = 124.88, which rounds down to 124, making the target 125.
Calculation note: values are processed in the order shown above, using the current input units.
Worked Examples
Uninterrupted match, no rain
With full resources on both sides (100% each), the par score equals Team 1's score exactly, so the target is simply 250 + 1 = 251, the same as any normal chase with no rain involved.
Rain interruption mid-chase
Team 1 batted with full resources (100%). Team 2, with 20 overs left and 4 wickets down, has 44.6% of their resources remaining according to the published Standard Edition table. Par score is 280 x 44.6 / 100 = 124.88, which rounds down to 124, so the target becomes 125.
A shortened 40-over-a-side match
Both teams get the same reduced 40-over allocation with no wickets lost, so both sides sit at 89.3% resources. The ratio is 1, meaning the par score matches Team 1's score exactly and the target is 201, unchanged from a normal chase of that score.
Team 2 loses all its wickets
All 10 wickets down means Team 2 has zero batting resources left no matter how many overs remain, so the par score bottoms out at 0 and the target is 1. In a real match this scenario ends the innings and the result is decided by comparing runs scored to the target already in play, not by recalculating a new one after the fact.
Common mistakes
- Treating overs remaining as the only factor that matters. Wickets lost reduce batting resources on their own, so 20 overs left with 8 wickets down is worth far less than 20 overs left with 2 wickets down.
- Entering Team 2's total overs allocation instead of the overs actually remaining at the point of interruption. This tool needs overs left to bat, not overs already used.
- Assuming the par score is the same thing as the target. The target to win is the par score plus one run, not the par score itself.
- Using this tool's output to argue about or settle the result of a real professional match. See the limitations section for why that is not appropriate.
- Forgetting that a reduced Team 1 innings (fewer than 50 overs available from the very start) still needs the correct overs figure entered, since Team 1's resources are calculated from that number too.
Limitations
This calculator is an unofficial, simplified educational implementation and should never be used to settle the result of a real match. Two things matter here, and both are important. First, real international and first-class cricket uses the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method's proprietary Professional Edition, adopted by the ICC in 2004, which assigns a different resource table for every possible score rather than one shared table for all matches. The exact constants behind the Professional Edition are commercially confidential and have never been published, so no independent calculator, including this one, can reproduce the official match-legal number. Second, this tool implements the older, publicly documented Standard Edition method instead, using the Standard Edition's published resource-percentage reference table. That table itself only publishes values at even numbers of wickets lost (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, plus 10 wickets as zero resources) and at a handful of overs breakpoints (50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5, 0). This calculator fills in the gaps between those published points with straight-line interpolation, both across overs and across wickets, since the real underlying curve is an exponential decay rather than a straight line. Values that land exactly on a published breakpoint match the official Standard Edition table. Values in between are a reasonable approximation, not an exact reproduction. This tool also assumes Team 1's own innings was completed without a separate weather interruption partway through. It does not model multiple stoppages in a single innings, does not apply the G50 adjustment used in some Standard Edition scenarios where the second team's resources exceed the first team's, and does not account for minimum-overs rules that some competitions require before a match can produce a valid result. Use this tool to understand how the resource-percentage idea works and to get a reasonable estimate for casual purposes, not as a substitute for the official DLS software used by match officials.
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