The points system is the language fantasy cricket is played in. Every captain decision, every differential pick, every grand-league entry reduces, eventually, to a points formula. The IFI editorial desk has spent the last six IPL seasons reverse-engineering the points systems of the four major apps and cross-referencing them with the official IPL statistics. This page is the consolidated reference: every points band, every bonus, every deduction, every edge case, written for the pan-India fantasy community that wants the math before the toss.

Batting points: the runs bands and the strike-rate bonuses

One run is one point. That part is simple. The complication is the strike-rate bonus, which rewards batsmen who score fast and penalises those who do not. The bonus bands on the four major apps are aligned within a point of each other, with the standard being: a strike rate between 130 and 150 earns a 4-point bonus; between 150 and 200 earns a 6-point bonus; above 200 earns an 8-point bonus. The deductions are: a strike rate between 50 and 70 loses 2 points; between 30 and 50 loses 4 points; below 30 loses 6 points.

The strike-rate bands are calculated per innings, not per match, and they are applied to the official ball-by-ball data, not the player's final strike rate on the scorecard. That distinction matters for the not-out batsman who finishes 30 off 10 balls (strike rate 300, full 8-point bonus) and the not-out batsman who finishes 30 off 30 balls (strike rate 100, no bonus, no deduction).

Milestone bonuses: 30, 50, 100

Reaching 30 runs earns 4 bonus points. Reaching 50 earns 8. Reaching 100 earns 16. The bonuses are cumulative within an innings but the highest applicable band wins — a batsman who scores 112 gets the 100-run bonus (16) plus the run points (112) plus any strike-rate bonus, but does not also get the 50-run bonus (8) on top. The 30-run, 50-run, and 100-run bands are designed as laddered milestones, not as stacked bonuses.

For the fantasy player, the milestone bonus makes the top-order anchor significantly more valuable than the middle-order accumulator. A 50-run innings at 140 strike rate is worth 50 runs (50 pts) + 50 bonus (8 pts) + strike-rate bonus between 130-150 (4 pts) = 62 batting fantasy points before the captain 2x. A 49-run innings at 140 strike rate is worth 49 + 0 + 4 = 53. That 9-point gap across the captain 2x is a 18-point swing — the difference between a grand-league push and a slide.

Bowling points: wickets, economy, and the LBW / bowled premium

p>Wickets are 25 points each on the standard scoring system, with LBW and bowled wickets earning 8 bonus points on top — a total of 33 per dismissal type. The bonus exists because bowled and LBW dismissals reflect bowler skill more than catch-outs, which can be the result of good fielding as much as good bowling. The fantasy player should weight the bowled and LBW premium into the captain decision: a bowler who gets a high proportion of bowled and LBW dismissals is worth more captain points than the raw wicket count suggests.

Haul bonuses: 3 wickets earns 4 bonus points, 4 wickets earns 8, 5 wickets earns 16. The haul ladder is the same as the batting milestone ladder — only the highest band applies. A 4-wicket haul is worth 4 wickets (100) + 4-fer bonus (8) = 108 bowling points before the strike-rate or economy adjustment.

Economy rates: under 5 runs per over earns 6 points, 5-6 earns 4, 6-7 earns 2, 7-8 earns 0, 8-9 earns -1, 9-10 earns -2, 10-11 earns -3, above 11 earns -4. The economy bands apply only when the bowler has bowled the minimum number of overs set by the platform (usually 2 overs). Part-time bowlers who bowl a single over are exempt from the deduction.

Fielding points: catches, stumpings, run-outs

A caught dismissal earns 8 points to the fielder. A stumping earns 12 points to the wicket-keeper. A run-out direct hit earns 12 points; a run-out assisted (catcher or relay) earns 6 points to each fielder involved. There is no fielding-cap differential across the major apps.

Fielding points are the most under-considered edge in fantasy cricket. A wicket-keeper who takes three catches and a stumping in a match earns 36 fielding points on top of any batting or bowling points. The IFI desk recommends a minimum of one specialist wicket-keeper in every fantasy XI, even when the batting is stronger elsewhere in the squad, because the fielding floor is so reliable.

The captain 2x and the vice-captain 1.5x

The captain earns double the match fantasy points. The vice-captain earns 1.5x. The choice is locked at team-creation time, before the toss. That means the captain decision is a pre-match decision, made on incomplete information. The IFI desk splits the captain decision into a pre-toss thesis (published at 4 pm on match day) and a post-toss overlay (published 10 minutes after the playing XIs are announced).

The 2x is the largest single use point in the contest. A 50-point captain night becomes 100 fantasy points. A 100-point captain night becomes 200. The differential between a 40-point captain and a 60-point captain, after the 2x, is 40 fantasy points — the difference between a 1,000-rank finish and a 100-rank finish in a typical 10,000-entry grand league.

The impact player rule: a 12th slot with full points

Each IPL team nominates four impact players before the match. At the 14th over, the team can substitute one of those four into the XI. The substitute earns full fantasy points from that point forward. The original XI member's fantasy points are frozen at the 14th over.

For the fantasy player, the impact player rule creates a captaincy overlay. If you know the team is likely to bring in the death-overs specialist as the impact player, your captain 2x on that specialist is a late-game captaincy. Conversely, if your captain is the player likely to be replaced by the impact player, your 2x is frozen at 14 overs — the 2x is applied to the pre-replacement score, not the post.

Substitutions and the bench player

Each fantasy squad has 15 players: 11 in the XI, 4 on the bench. The bench players can be swapped into the XI before the toss but not after. The swaps are limited (usually 1-3 per contest) and the swapped-in player earns full points. The swapped-out player earns zero.

For the grand-league player, the bench is not dead weight. The bench should be a mix of players from the same position (in case of last-minute injury) and one or two differential picks (in case the toss overlay changes the captain calculus). The IFI desk files a recommended XI and a recommended bench on every match day, available on the captain picks page.

How the points system informs the captain decision

The captain is not just the best player. The captain is the player whose scoring profile maps best onto the points bands. A 60-point night is not just 60 — it is the run points (40) plus the strike-rate bonus (6) plus the 50-run milestone (8) plus any fielding (4) plus any economy (0) = 58 batting points plus the 2x. A bowler's 60-point night is 25 (wicket) + 8 (bowled) + 4 (economy) + 4 (3-fer) = 41 bowling points plus the 2x. The captain is the player whose points profile is most likely to clear 50 raw points, not just the best player.

The IFI desk reverse-engineers the points for every likely captain candidate before filing the captain card. The 200-word thesis that appears on the captain picks page includes the raw-points estimate, the captain-2x estimate, and the differential between the safe and the differential captaincy candidates. The math is the spine of the editorial.