How this calculator works
A batting average is a rate per chance. In baseball a chance is an official at-bat, so walks, hit-by-pitches and sacrifice flies are excluded from the denominator. In cricket a chance is a completed innings in which the batter was dismissed, so not-out innings add runs without adding a dismissal. The same arithmetic produces very different numbers: a .300 baseball average is strong, while a cricket average of 30 runs per dismissal is modest. Both sports round the published figure to three decimal places, and neither rate says anything about scoring speed.
Formula
Baseball: BA = H / AB. Cricket: average = runs / dismissals. Rearranged: numerator = average x denominator; denominator = numerator / average.
Worked example
A batter with 60 hits in 200 at-bats has 60 / 200 = 0.300. A cricketer with 1,200 runs and 30 dismissals averages 1,200 / 30 = 40.00. To find the at-bats behind a .250 average with 60 hits, divide 60 by 0.250 to get 240.
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Frequently asked questions
Why do walks not count as at-bats?
Official scoring treats a walk, a hit-by-pitch and a sacrifice fly as plate appearances but not at-bats. Including them would punish a patient hitter for reaching base.
What does a cricket average of 40 mean?
The batter scores about 40 runs for every innings in which they are dismissed. Not-out innings are counted in the runs and in the innings played, but not in the dismissals.
Can a batting average be negative or above 1?
A baseball average cannot be negative and is normally below 1. The field accepts values above 1 only so that the reverse calculation can solve for a very large count; the result is flagged if it is not finite.