We reproduced all 13 net run rates the ICC published for three groups of the 2026 Men's T20 World Cup, each to the third decimal, and the tables came out right only when overs were counted in balls. Net run rate is a side's runs per over minus the runs per over scored against it, pooled over every match with a result. Counted that way, 19.3 overs is 19 overs and 3 balls, or 19½. A side that is all out is charged every over it was allotted, and no-result matches and Super Overs are left out. Reading 19.3 as a plain decimal matched 1 of the 13.
The rule is clause 16.10.2 of the ICC's Men's ODI and T20I Playing Conditions, effective from October 2026. Its five sentences define the figure, set the all-out rule, drop matches without a result and handle Duckworth/Lewis/Stern (DLS), which resets a target when rain costs overs. The October 2026 ODI text differs from July 2025's only in writing "one (1) run"; we did not compare the T20I editions.
New Zealand went through ahead of Pakistan on run rate alone
In Super 8 Group 2, the second group stage, New Zealand's match with Pakistan on 21 February 2026 was abandoned without a ball. Each won once and lost once, finishing on 3 points. The tournament's playing conditions separate sides level on points by wins and then by net run rate (16.10.4), which split them on the ICC's standings page.
On the match scores, New Zealand made 327 in 40 overs, 8.175 an over. They conceded 107 in 20 overs and 161 in 19.3, so 268 off 39½, or 6.785 an over. The difference, +1.390, is the ICC's. Pakistan's 376 off 40, against 373 conceded off 39⅙, gives −0.123; the odd sixth is England reaching 166 in 19.1 overs. New Zealand went on to the first semi-final. No other semi-final place from the Super 8 turned on net run rate; we did not check the first round.
Decimal overs lose to a ball count on the ICC's own tables
No clause we opened says how to turn 19.3 into a number. Counting it as 19½ is our inference, because no other reading reproduces the tables. Read as a decimal, 19.3 matched only Sri Lanka, whose innings and opponents' innings all ran 20 overs or ended all out. Averaging the match figures also matched Sri Lanka alone; adding them matched nothing. That is the average of averages problem, where a chase won in 13.2 overs weighs as much as a full 20.
Until 12 October 2026 our cricket net run rate calculator took a running total of overs as one figure, rolled 19.7 up to 20.0 and cut 19.45 to 19.4 without warning. Adding 17.4 and 16.4 as decimals gives 34.8, which it read as 35 overs instead of 34 and 2 balls, so 200 scored in those overs against 200 conceded in 40 showed +0.714 where the true figure is +0.825. Its copy also charged an all-out side 50 or 20 overs whatever the allotment, credited rain-revised matches a run too high and ranked net run rate ahead of wins. The revised version takes one row per match, adds balls itself and refuses impossible ball digits.
A side all out early surrenders every over it was allotted
The clause bases an all-out side's figure on "the full quota of overs to which it would have been entitled". Sri Lanka, 95 all out in 16.4 overs against England, would stand at −1.549 if charged only the overs they batted; charged 20, they sit at the published −1.950, a cost of 0.401. India's 111 all out in 18.5 against South Africa moved India from +0.297 to +0.106. Ignoring the rule matched only the two Super 8 figures no all-out innings touched, New Zealand's and Pakistan's.
Rain-affected winners can finish behind beaten sides on a naive count
No match in the groups we opened went to DLS, so these figures are from an invented ODI. Suppose Team 1 makes 260 in 50 overs and play is abandoned with Team 2 on 150 for 2 after 30, ahead of its par score of 130. The clause credits Team 1 with "Team 2's Par Score on abandonment off the same number of overs faced by Team 2", giving Team 2 +0.667 from the match. Set Team 1's 260 off 50 against Team 2's 150 off 30 instead, and the winners sit at −0.200, the losers at +0.200.
When DLS revised a target and play finished, Team 1 is credited with "one (1) run less than the final Target Score" off Team 2's allotted overs. In a second invented ODI, Team 1 makes 280 in 50 and Team 2 wins a revised chase of 220 in 40 with 221 in 38.1. Crediting Team 1 with 219 off 40 gives Team 2 +0.315; crediting the target itself would give +0.290. Had Team 2 been all out for 180 in 36 overs, it would be charged its 40 allotted overs, for −0.975, where 50 would give −1.875.
Each extra boundary gains a side about 0.1 in a short group
Four more runs in the same overs add 4 ÷ overs faced: 0.100 over two full 20-over matches, and 0.067 to 0.074 over three. Balls weigh as much. India chased 199 in 19.2 overs against West Indies and finished Super 8 Group 1 on +0.106. With the same runs one ball sooner, the figure would be +0.133; one over sooner, +0.270, and West Indies would drop from +0.993 to +0.820. Holding Pakistan's 212 fixed, our arithmetic has Pakistan passing New Zealand with Sri Lanka held to 147 or fewer, a hindsight figure that nobody stated at the time.
Clause 16.5.3 of the T20I conditions credits "the whole of the boundary allowance" even when fewer runs would have won. The ICC page does not show India's winning ball; had the chase ended on exactly 196, our arithmetic gives +0.055.
Run rate trails wins in every tie-break order we read
For any ICC-approved league of more than two teams, clause 16.10.1 of the ODI and T20I conditions separates sides level on points by wins, then by wins against the other sides still level, then by net run rate. The 2026 World Cup put net run rate before head-to-head. Its Super Over, a one-over contest to settle a tie, decides the points while its runs stay out of net run rate: South Africa tied with Afghanistan in Group D, won the second Super Over and took 8 points from 4 matches, yet only the two 20-over innings entered our figures.
The Singapore Cricket Association's League Rules 2025 also put wins first, with net run rate next, at rule 10. They set 40-over matches for Division 1 and 30-over matches for Divisions 2 to 5 but never define net run rate, so a 40- or 30-over quota there is our inference. Malaysia hosted the ICC U19 Women's T20 World Cup 2025 under conditions that repeat the all-out sentence at 16.10.9. In its Asia qualifier, Nepal finished above the UAE on net run rate, according to an ICC release of 6 January 2025.
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