Strike rate refers to two different statistics in the sport of cricket. Cricket is a Sport that generates a large number of Statistics. Sport is an Activity that is governed by a set of rules or Customs and often engaged in competitively Cricket is a bat-and-ball team Sport that originated in England and is now played in more than 100 countries Batting strike rate is a measure of how frequently a batsman achieves the primary goal of batting, namely scoring runs. Mike Powell cricketerjpg|thumb|200px| Warwickshire batsman Mike Powell]] A batsman in the sport of Cricket is depending on context Any Andrew-Strauss-Cricketer-detailjpg|thumb|right|250px| Andrew Strauss batting for England during the 2005 NatWest Series]] In the Sport of Cricket, batting the Sport of Cricket, a run is the basic unit of scoring. Runs are scored by a Batsman, and the aggregate of the scores of a team's batsmen (plus Bowling strike rate is a measure of how frequently a bowler achieves the primary goal of bowling, namely taking wickets (i. Muralijpg|thumb|250px|right|The world's leading off-spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan sends down a delivery]] A bowler in the Sport of Cricket is usually Darren_Gough_bowlingjpg|thumb|250px|right| Darren Gough bowling]] In the Sport of Cricket, bowling is the action of propelling the ball toward In the sport of Cricket the word wicket has several distinct meanings Meanings of wicket Set of stumps Primarily the wicket e. getting batsmen out).

Both strike rates are relatively new statistics, having only been invented and considered of importance after the introduction of One Day International cricket in the 1970s. Note Most of the information here pertains to men's cricket ODI matches are also played in Women's cricket. This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970.

International batting strike rates as of January 2004.

Batting strike rate

Batting strike rate is defined for a batsman as the average number of runs scored per 100 balls faced. A delivery or ball in Cricket is a single action of Bowling a Cricket ball towards the Batsman. The higher the strike rate, the more effective a batsman is at scoring quickly.

In Test cricket, a batsman's strike rate is of secondary relevance to his ability to score runs without getting out. Test cricket is the longest form of the Sport of Cricket. It has long been considered the ultimate test of playing ability between cricketing nations This means a Test batsman's most important statistic is generally considered to be his batting average, rather than his strike rate. Batting average is a Statistic in both Cricket and Baseball measuring the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters, respectively However, given players of similar batting averages, the one with the higher strike rate would be considered a better batsman.

In limited overs cricket, strike rates are of considerably more importance. NightMatchOldTraffordjpg|right|thumb|350px|A night match at Old Trafford. Since each team only faces a limited number of balls in an innings, the faster a batsman scores, the more runs his team will be able to accumulate. One-day International batsmen should have a strike rate of 75. 0 or more to be considered effective and strike rates of over 150 are becoming common in Twenty20 cricket. Twenty20 is a form of Cricket, originally introduced in the United Kingdom for professional inter-county competition by the England and Wales Cricket Board ^[1] Strike rate or s/r as it is abbreviated to, is probably considered by most as the key factor in a batsman in one day cricket. Accordingly the batsmen with the higher strike rate, especially in Twenty20 matches, are more valued than those with a lesser strike rate.

Bowling strike rate

Bowling strike rate is defined for a bowler as the average number of balls bowled per wicket taken. The lower the strike rate, the more effective a bowler is.

Although introduced as a statistic complementary to the batting strike rate during the ascension of one-day cricket in the 1980s, bowling strike rates are arguably of more importance in Test cricket than One-day Internationals. This is because the primary goal of a bowler in Test cricket is almost always to take wickets, whereas in a one-day match it is often sufficient to bowl economically - giving away as few runs as possible even if this means taking fewer wickets.

A Test bowling strike rate below 60. 0 is considered good, whereas in One-day Internationals a strike rate needs to be below 40. 0 to be considered good. The difference arises because in Test cricket the batsmen are much more concerned about preserving their wickets, and collecting runs over extended periods, whereas in One-day Internationals batsmen are expected to take risks to score runs very quickly, and so it is considerably more difficult to get a batsman out in Test cricket compared to One-day Internationals.

See also

• Bowling average

References

1. ^ Cricinfo Twenty20 Internationals Highest career batting strike rates