Batting average facts for kids

Batting average is a special number used in sports like cricket and baseball. It helps us understand how well a player hits the ball. It's a way to measure a player's skill when they are batting.

Batting Average

A batting average is a statistic, which means it's a number that helps us compare players. It shows how successful a player is at hitting the ball and scoring runs or getting on base. Different sports use it in slightly different ways.

In Cricket

In cricket, a batsman's average tells us how many runs they score for each time they get out. To figure it out, you take the total number of runs a player has scored. Then, you divide that by how many times they have been dismissed (gotten out).

For example, if a player scores 100 runs and gets out 5 times, their average is 20 (100 divided by 5). The higher the average, the better the batsman. Famous players often have different averages for different types of cricket games, like Test matches or One-Day games. Sir Donald Bradman, a legendary player, has the highest batting average ever in Test cricket, which is an amazing 99.96!

In Baseball

In baseball, the batting average is often called BA or AVG. It shows how often a player gets a hit when they are at bat. To calculate it, you divide the number of hits a player has by their total number of at bats.

For instance, if a player gets 50 hits in 175 times they are at bat, their batting average would be .286. This means they get a hit about 28.6% of the time. A good batting average in baseball is usually around .300 or higher.

Images for kids

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  Ty Cobb (left) and Shoeless Joe Jackson are first and third, respectively, in MLB career batting average.