The DLS Method Explained: How Rain Targets Are Set in Cricket

Updated: 31 October 2026 · Author: Cricket Match Scorecard Editorial

Rain arrives mid-chase and the target suddenly changes to a number nobody can work out in their head. That number comes from the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method, usually shortened to DLS. You do not need the full table to understand it, because the idea behind it is simple.

Why simple run rate does not work

The obvious fix would be to compare run rates, but that is unfair. Imagine a team chasing 300 in 50 overs that reaches 150 in 25 overs with all wickets lost but one. On run rate it is level. In reality it is almost beaten. A team on the same score with nine wickets in hand is cruising.

An older method, based on a team's highest-scoring overs, produced a famous farce in the 1992 World Cup semi-final, when a rain break left South Africa needing an impossible 22 runs from a single ball. Cricket needed something better.

The key idea: resources

DLS treats a batting side as having two resources: overs remaining and wickets in hand. A team at the start of its innings has 100% of its resources. As overs pass and wickets fall, that percentage drops, and it drops much faster when wickets fall.

When overs are lost to rain, the method calculates how much resource each team had available, then scales the target to match.

• If the chasing side has fewer resources than the side batting first, the target goes down.
• If the chasing side has more, the target can go up. This surprises people, but it happens when the first innings was cut short and the team batting first planned around a longer innings.

An illustration with round numbers

The following percentages are invented to show the logic and are not taken from the official tables.

Team A scores 250 using all of its resources, 100%. Rain then cuts Team B's innings so that it only has 80% of its resources available. A simple version of the target is 250 × 0.8 = 200, and Team B would need 201 to win.

The real calculation is more involved, using tables or software with a figure for an average score, but the principle is the same: the target reflects the share of resources that each team could use.

What "par score" means

During an interrupted chase you may see a DLS par score. It tells you what the chasing team needs to have scored at that exact point, given its overs and wickets, to be level. If play is abandoned and the team is above par, it wins.

This is why you may see a batting side rush to get ahead of par as dark clouds arrive, and why a wicket at that moment hurts so much. One dismissal can lift par sharply, even with no change in the score.

A real example from this season

In the CSA T20 Challenge match between KwaZulu-Natal Inland and Western Province in October 2026, the first innings ran to 17 overs and produced 164. Western Province's reply was cut to 12 overs with a revised target, and they reached it with 117/5 off the final ball. A total of 117 looks far short of 164, but the target reflected the smaller share of resources available to a side with only 12 overs.

Where the name comes from

The method was devised by English statisticians Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis and was first used in international cricket in the late 1990s. When Australian statistician Steven Stern took over its development, it was renamed Duckworth-Lewis-Stern in 2014. It has been updated over time to reflect how scoring has changed, especially in T20.

How many overs make a match?

Competitions set a minimum number of overs that the side batting second must face for a result to stand. In men's international cricket, that has generally been 5 overs in a T20 and 20 overs in an ODI, unless the chase is completed sooner. Below that, it is a no result.

Common misunderstandings

• "DLS favours the chasing team." It is designed to be neutral, and both sides know the par score as they play.
• "You can work it out from run rate." You cannot, because wickets are part of the sum. Our required run rate calculator is useful for normal chases, but it is not a DLS calculator.
• "The target only ever falls." It can rise, as explained above.

To see how a chase target normally behaves, read our run rate guide.