MasterstrokeNumbers and stats
Economy rate
The runs a bowler gives away per over. The core measure of a limited-overs bowler, and the reason a wicketless spell can still win a match.
Economy rate is the number of runs a bowler concedes per over bowled.
A bowler whose four overs cost 28 runs has an economy of 7.00. Wides and no-balls count against it; byes and leg byes do not. In T20 cricket, anything under seven is very good and anything over ten is a problem; in ODIs, the benchmark is closer to five. Context matters enormously: a death-overs specialist going at eight is doing a harder job than a middle-overs spinner going at six.
Economy is the bowling counterpart of a batter's strike rate, and it sits alongside the bowler's own strike rate and average to describe two different virtues: taking wickets and stopping runs. A side defending a total wants both, but when it must choose, it often takes economy at the death and wickets in the middle. Dot balls are the raw material of a good economy, and a bowler who can string three together builds the pressure that produces the wicket at the other end.
In Masterstroke: each bowler's ratings show on the live match screen, and the plan you set for an over, wide lines and a packed off side or a full attack at the stumps, is a choice between economy and threat.