Cricket scoring symbols, decoded.

A scorebook is a ball-by-ball record in a very compact language. Once you know the dozen or so marks, you can read any scorecard, and you can follow what a scorer wrote even if they did not write it neatly.

Symbols for each ball

Mark	Meaning
• or ·	Dot ball: no runs scored off a legal delivery.
1, 2, 3	Runs scored off the bat by running.
4	Boundary four. Many scorers circle it.
6	Six runs. Often boxed or double-circled.
W	Wicket: the batter is out.
Wd	Wide. Add a number for extra runs (Wd 2 is the wide plus a run).
Nb	No-ball. A following number shows runs off the bat.
B	Bye: runs when the ball misses the bat and body.
Lb	Leg bye: runs when the ball hits the body, not the bat.

In Scorecord’s over strip, dots appear as • and runs as numbers. Boundaries are highlighted in lime so a good over is visible at a glance. If you want the rules behind each extra, read cricket extras explained.

Dismissal abbreviations

Mark	Dismissal
b	Bowled: the ball hit the stumps.
c … b …	Caught by a fielder (c), off the bowler (b).
lbw	Leg before wicket.
st	Stumped by the wicketkeeper.
run out	The fielding side broke the stumps before the batter reached the crease.
hit wkt	Hit wicket: the batter knocked the stumps with the bat or body.
not out, *	Still batting at the end of the innings. An asterisk marks it, as in 24*.

Reading a scorecard line

Take this batting line: Aman S · c Dev R b Nikhil T · 24 · 12 · 3/1 · 200. It reads: Aman S was caught by Dev R off the bowling of Nikhil T, scoring 24 runs from 12 balls, with 3 fours and 1 six, at a strike rate of 200. Strike rate is runs per 100 balls: 24 ÷ 12 × 100.

A bowling line is shorter: Nikhil T · 1.0 · 10 · 1 · 10.0 means one over bowled, 10 runs conceded, one wicket taken, economy 10.0 runs per over.

Why scorebooks differ

There is no single official notation for the whole game, so books and clubs vary. Some write a wicket as a circled W, some use a slash, some colour boundaries in red. What matters is consistency: pick a set of marks, use them for the whole match and you can always rebuild the score. When you use an app, it picks one notation for you and does the totals. If you are learning from scratch, start with how to score a cricket match.