The limited over shoot out is simple: Most runs win. But as the game has changed so much in recent years, should you revise your team's tactics in the format?

This article will show you a successful blueprint that you can use in your one day games. Think of it as general guidelines rather than laws of success, because conditions and playing standards will vary greatly. There's no one set way, but these tips will help you do better in some way.

The blueprint comes from a team who have had genuine success in the UK 2016 summer. West of Scotland played 19 matches (50 over format), the team won 14 and finished third in the league. You'll find out more as we go along.

Here are the tips:

Score from more balls

Runs are the core of limited over success, but in longer formats (40-50 overs) there are far more dots that balls that runs are scored. As a result, the fewer dots you face when batting the more runs you get. This is measured by the team as "scoring ball percentage" (SB%)

So, in 2016, West of Scotland had a SB% of 31% in 4439 balls faced. The opposition's was 26%. On average, the opposition scored 17 fewer runs per match. There is also a large correlation between results and SB%. The team with the higher SB% won 15 from 19 matches, with four games going against the trend.

Now you know this, how do you score from more balls?

First, start with an intent to score from every ball, the details of how you can see here:

• Improve your strike rotation
• Play more attacking shots with good technique and control.
• Play tip and run
• Learn to backload, line drive and dropkick
• Be world-class at backing up and supporting from the boundary.

These are all things you can work on between games if you feel you could score from more balls (and as a benchmark, over 40% is excellent, under 25% is very poor).

Bowl dots, take wickets

With the ball, it's common for people to say that wickets are the fastest way to slow the opposition scoring rate. This rings true from the stats, but not totally.

Let's take overs 10-20 of West of Scotland matches to compare. The average runs scored in this phase was 33. When two wickets or fewer were lost, the average went up to 36. When more than two wickets were, lost the average was 27.

As you can see, wickets make a difference in certain phases, but teams also tend to recover:

• Batting first, the average score was 164.
• When bowled out, the average score was 157 (with a top score of 239).
• When not bowled out, average score was 170 (top score 227).

So, total scores are not significantly reduced unless a team is bowled out. And even then, there is still a high chance of an above average score.

That means - for bowling tactics - the magic formula is to restrict scoring as much as possible and take wickets through frustration rather than magic bowling.

To do that, the key is to develop accurate bowlers who can hit the stumps.

Bowling at the stumps keeps bowled and LBW in the game and makes it harder to score. You can also set a field more easily when you know most balls will force batsmen to play straight (or take bigger risks).

How accurate is accurate enough to win games?

Probably less than you think. Even getting 40% on the spot will make you a very fine bowler indeed.

But it's also easy to improve.

The type of bowling does not seem to make a huge difference, as you can see from West of Scotland's bowling stats:

• Seamers bowled 458 balls and took 83 wickets at 3.64 per over
• Spinners bowled 466 balls, taking 79 wickets at 3.23 per over

Although, it's clear the tradition tactic of opening the bowling with seam is still effective: Seamers took 38 wickets at 2.87 per over in the first 10 overs. The spinners did most of the damage from over 11 onwards. This included 72% of all wicket at the death, which is higher than you might expect.

Create good fielders

You might say this is a no-brainer. But how do you know you have good fielders?

This year, West of Scotland made a crude measure of fielding skill by tracking three things:

1. Catches vs. drops
2. Fielding errors (that cost runs)
3. Good pieces of fielding (that saved runs)

By knowing these figures, you can see if you need to do more work on fielding skills and techniques, or you just need to maintain what you have.

In 2016, the "better" fielding team on the day (fewer mistakes, more good stops, better catching) won 15 from 19 games. There is a clear correlation between fielding skill and wins in 50 over cricket.

In the case of West of Scotland, the catch percentage was 60%, the average number of misfields was four and the average number of good stops was five. Based on this, you could say that these numbers reflect a good fielding side, even if they are not perfect. But who is?

One area the team worked hard on this year was improving ground fielding. This showed up in the figures with the average misfields falling from seven to four as the season went on. It's also noticeable that players tend to say "we fielded badly" when misfields goes over five.

On the other hand, the catch percentage seemed to stay the same through the year despite a huge volume of catching practice. The low point was 52% the high point was 65%. While you will never catch everything because catch difficulty varies from easy to almost impossible, this indicates that more work needs to be done on certain types of catching.

The take home message is this: volume works, but quality works better. The more you can work on weaker fielding areas to bring them up, the more games you win.

Summary

Winning limited over games seems simple, but it takes a lot of skill to be one of the best at simple things. Work on:

1. Intent to score from more balls
2. Ability to bowl dots
3. Fielding skills

All these elements can be improved with the right attitude, and when you get them right you win matches. The proof has been shown this year.