Microsoft Excel: Adding Overs in Cricket

Those of you who know the gentlemen's game are aware of the fact when talking about overs, the number after the decimal point always indicates balls that have been bowled. For example: 6.5 overs means 6 overs and 5 balls, 11.2 overs means 11 overs and 2 balls, and so on so forth.

Since each over has 6 balls, here is how mathematics of cricket overs works:

 

In first line, we are adding 1 ball to 6 overs and 5 balls resulting in 7 complete overs. In second line, we are adding 4 balls to 11 overs and 2 balls resulting in 12 complete overs. In third line - that's where things get a little interesting - we are adding 2 overs and 3 balls to 5 overs and 4 balls. Adding 3 and 4 gives us 7. Since an over cannot have more than 6 balls, we mentally subtract 6 from seven and get 1. We turn 6 balls - that we just subtracted - into 1 over and carry it over to other side of the decimal point and add it to 5 and 2. Using the example of elementary arithmetic we get:

This seems like a hybrid of base 10 and base 6 mathematics. Since base 6 is not built into Microsoft Excel, doing this kind of addition can be challenging, if not impossible, in a worksheet.

You can use following rather complex formula to add overs of multiple players in a score card:

=SUM(TRUNC(C2:C10,0))+TRUNC(SUM(C2:C10-TRUNC(C2:C10,0))*10/6)+MOD(SUM(C2:C10-TRUNC(C2:C10,0))*10,6)/10

C2:C10 is the range of cells that contains overs that you want to add. Here is this formula in action:

Another slightly modified example:

Remember: Above formula is of a special kind called array formula. After you have typed or copied this formula in your worksheet, press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER to calculate. Every time you edit this formula, you will have to use same three keys to recalculate.