Key moments: every badge, what it means and when it is earned
A key moment is a ball or an over that earned a badge, such as a hat-trick, a fifty, a maiden or the winning runs. Badges are awarded as the match goes on, judged against how this match has gone so far, and once awarded one is never taken back.
In short
- Badges are earned liveA ball or an over earns a badge as the match is played, judged against the match up to that ball.
- Badges are never taken backOnce a badge appears it stays, so a link in a group chat says the same thing an hour later.
- Some wait for the resultWinning runs and the winning wicket are awarded only at the end, once that ball is known.
- Judged against this matchA maiden or an expensive over stands out only against how this match has gone.
- The earner gets the creditA moment sits on the side that earned it: a wicket with the bowler, a fifty with the batter.
Earned, never withdrawn
A key moment is a ball or an over that earned a badge. Badges are awarded while the match is played, and each one is judged against the match up to that ball, not against how it finished. So once a badge appears it stays: a link pasted into a group chat says the same thing an hour later.
Some badges can only be honest at the end. Nobody knows which ball won the match until it is over, so those wait for the result rather than guessing and changing their mind.
Whose moment it is
The moments list has one column per team, named at the top, and every moment sits in the column of the side that earned it. It names whoever earned it and says what they did: a wicket is the bowler's, "Sam, Kai caught", and a fifty is the batter's. The badge hangs below in that side's colour, so what happened and why it mattered never share a line. On a phone the two columns fold into one, with each side's moments reading from its own edge.
In cricket each innings is a chapter across both columns, so you can see when a moment happened as well as whose it was.
Tap any moment to open it and you can share it too. The link opens the match page on that moment, with its Watch button and its photos, so whoever you send it to lands on the catch rather than the top of the page.
Every badge
- The ball that won the chase. Awarded at the final ball and never before, because until then nobody knows it was.
- The wicket that ended the match and won it for the bowling side. Also only awarded once the match is over.
- The ball a batter reached a hundred runs.
- The ball a batter reached fifty runs.
- A batter hitting four sixes within twelve balls of their own, across however many overs that takes.
- Three or more sixes in a single over.
- A bowler taking wickets with three balls in a row.
- The ball a bowler took their fifth wicket of the innings.
- The wicket that broke a partnership big for this match, measured against how partnerships have gone in it so far.
- A batter out after making a large share of their side’s total, which is the wicket the other side wanted most.
- An over with no runs off the bat and a wicket in it.
- An over with no runs off the bat, in a match where runs are coming quickly enough for that to be rare.
- An over that went for about twice the rate this match has been scoring at.
- A scoring shot late in a chase, when the side still needs runs faster than the match has been going.
Judged against the match
A few badges are counts that mean the same on every ground: three sixes in an over is three sixes in an over. The rest are judged against the match itself. A 16-run over is expensive in a match going at six an over and ordinary in one going at twelve, and a maiden stands out only where runs have been easy.
Each badge awarded also raises the bar a little for the next one of its kind, so a match full of maidens does not end up with a badge on every one of them.
Watch it again
If the match was streamed to YouTube and the scorer linked and lined up the stream, a key moment gets a button that plays it on the match page, and another that opens it in the recording a few seconds before it happened. A moment whose time looks typed in after the fact gets no button rather than one that shows the wrong ten seconds.
Questions people ask
About key moments explained.
Why did a maiden get a badge in one match and not another?
Some badges are judged against the match itself. In a match where runs are hard to come by, a maiden is ordinary; in one where they flow, it stands out.
Can a badge disappear?
No. A badge may be earned as the match goes on and is never withdrawn, so a link shared in a group says the same thing an hour later.
Why is Winning runs only shown at the end?
Until the match is over nobody knows which ball won it. Those badges wait for the result rather than guessing.
Does football have badges too?
Yes, under the same rules: the opening goal, an equaliser, a go-ahead goal, a brace, a hat-trick, a penalty save and, at full time, the winning goal.
Why is a wicket on the bowling side?
Each side of the moments list is one team, and a moment sits on the side of whoever earned it. A wicket is the bowler taking it, so it sits with the bowling side and names the bowler. A saved penalty names the keeper the same way.
What else it does for you
- Live scoringFreeScore from your phone with big buttons, ball by ball or goal by goal, and undo any tap.
- One live linkFreeSend one read-only link to the group. It updates live, and nobody needs an app or an account.
- Result and fixture cardsFreeA picture of the fixture or the result, sized for a WhatsApp Status, Instagram or Facebook.