Know the Words

Cricket Glossary

Cricket carries more vocabulary than almost any other sport, and it arrives all at once. A single line of commentary can hold five words that mean nothing outside the game — a googly that beat the outside edge, a leg bye, a maiden over.

This is a plain-English explanation of 54 of them. The guides cover how to play; this covers what is being said while it is played.

A

All-rounder Players
A player who contributes meaningfully with both bat and ball. Batting or bowling a little does not make an all-rounder — the side has to be able to pick them for either discipline.
Appeal Rules
The fielding side asking the umpire whether the batter is out, traditionally with the cry "howzat". An umpire cannot give a batter out unless the fielding side appeals, however obvious the dismissal looks.
Arm ball Bowling
A delivery from a finger spinner that does not turn and carries straight on with the arm. It works because the batter plays for spin that never arrives.

B

Beamer Bowling
A full-toss that reaches the batter above waist height without bouncing. It is dangerous and illegal, and repeated beamers can have a bowler removed from the attack.
Bouncer Bowling
A short delivery that rises towards the batter's head or chest. Limited in number per over in most formats, and used to unsettle a batter rather than to take a wicket directly.
Boundary Scoring
The rope or line marking the edge of the field, and also the shot that reaches it: four runs along the ground, six if the ball clears it without bouncing.
Bye Scoring
Runs taken when the ball passes both the bat and the wicket-keeper without touching either. They count for the team as extras, not for the batter.

C

Carrom ball Bowling
A delivery flicked out between the thumb and a bent middle finger, spinning the opposite way to the bowler's stock ball. Named after the flicking action used in the board game carrom.
Century Scoring
An individual score of 100 runs or more in a single innings. A double century is 200, and a half century is 50.
Chinaman Bowling
Left-arm wrist spin, turning into a right-handed batter. The term is falling out of use in favour of the plain description, which is clearer anyway.
Cover drive Batting
A front-foot shot played through the off side towards the cover fielder. It requires the ball to be full and wide enough to reach, and is the shot most often described as the game's most elegant.
Crease Rules
The marked lines at each end of the pitch. The popping crease is the one that matters for run-outs and stumpings: the batter is safe once bat or body is grounded behind it.

D

Declaration Rules
The batting captain choosing to end their innings before ten wickets have fallen, to leave enough time to bowl the opposition out. Only possible in matches of more than one innings a side.
DLS method Rules
The Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method, used to set a fair revised target when rain shortens a limited-overs match. It accounts for both the overs lost and the wickets still in hand.
Doosra Bowling
An off spinner's delivery that turns the other way, away from a right-handed batter. The name means "the second one" or "the other one" in Urdu and Hindi.
Dot ball Scoring
A delivery from which no run is scored, recorded as a dot in the scorebook. Strings of dot balls build the pressure that produces wickets in limited-overs cricket.
Duck Scoring
Being dismissed without scoring. Out first ball is a golden duck; out first ball of the innings is a diamond duck.

E

Economy rate Scoring
Runs conceded per over by a bowler. In limited-overs cricket it matters as much as wickets: a bowler who concedes four an over is doing a job even without taking any.
Extras Scoring
Runs added to the team total that are not credited to any batter: byes, leg byes, wides and no balls.

F

Follow-on Rules
In a match of two innings a side, the leading team can make the trailing team bat again immediately if the deficit is large enough — 200 runs in a five-day match.
Free hit Rules
The delivery after a no ball in limited-overs cricket, on which the batter cannot be out except by run-out. The field may not be changed for it unless the strike has changed.

G

Golden duck Scoring
Out first ball faced, without scoring.
Googly Bowling
A wrist spinner's delivery that turns the opposite way to their leg break, coming back into a right-handed batter. Also called a wrong'un.

H

Hat-trick Bowling
Three wickets in three consecutive deliveries by the same bowler. The deliveries may span two overs or even two innings.

I

Innings Rules
A team's or a batter's turn to bat. The word is the same in singular and plural — a batter plays an innings, never an "inning".

L

LBW Rules
Leg before wicket: out because the ball struck the batter when it would otherwise have hit the stumps. Several conditions must all be met, which is why so many appeals are turned down.
Leg break Bowling
A wrist spinner's stock delivery, turning from leg to off against a right-handed batter — that is, away from them.
Leg bye Scoring
Runs taken after the ball has hit the batter's body rather than the bat. They count as extras, and only count at all if the batter was attempting a shot or avoiding the ball.

M

Maiden over Bowling
An over from which no runs are scored off the bat. A wicket maiden is a maiden in which a wicket also falls.

N

Nightwatchman Batting
A lower-order batter promoted late in the day to protect a better batter from having to start an innings in the last overs of play.
No ball Rules
An illegal delivery — most often the bowler overstepping the crease, but also a dangerous high full toss or an illegal field. It costs a run, is bowled again, and in limited-overs cricket brings a free hit.
Nurdle Batting
To work the ball into a gap for a single without playing an attacking shot. Unspectacular and central to keeping the scoreboard moving.

O

Over Rules
Six legal deliveries bowled from one end. Wides and no balls do not count towards the six, so an over containing extras has more than six deliveries.

P

Powerplay Rules
A set number of overs at the start of a limited-overs innings during which only two fielders may stand outside the inner circle, encouraging attacking batting.
Pull shot Batting
A back-foot shot played to a short ball, swung across the line towards the leg side. Distinct from the hook, which is played to a ball at head height.

R

Reverse swing Bowling
Swing in the opposite direction to normal, achieved with an older ball at higher pace. It is hard to pick because the ball's appearance suggests the other movement.
Run out Rules
A dismissal in which the fielding side breaks the stumps while the batter is out of their ground attempting a run. No bowler is credited with the wicket.
Run rate Scoring
Runs scored per over. The required run rate is what the chasing side needs from the overs remaining, and it is the number that shapes how a chase is played.

S

Seam Bowling
The stitched ridge around the ball, and the movement produced when it lands on that ridge and deviates. Seam movement happens off the pitch; swing happens in the air.
Silly point Fielding
A fielding position very close to the batter on the off side. "Silly" in the sense of dangerously close — the fielder wears a helmet and shin protection.
Sledging Players
Verbal pressure applied to a batter by the fielding side. Tolerated within limits and penalised when it crosses into personal abuse.
Slip Fielding
A close catching position beside the wicket-keeper, waiting for edges. Sides use anything from one slip to four or more depending on how attacking the plan is.
Strike rate Scoring
For a batter, runs scored per hundred balls faced — a measure of scoring speed. For a bowler, the number of balls bowled per wicket taken, where lower is better. Same phrase, two different meanings.
Stumped Rules
A dismissal in which the wicket-keeper breaks the stumps while the batter is out of their crease and not attempting a run. Almost always off spin bowling with the keeper standing up.
Super over Rules
A one-over-per-side tie-breaker used in limited-overs cricket when the scores finish level.
Sweep Batting
A shot played to a spinner from a kneeling position, sweeping the ball square on the leg side. The reverse sweep plays the same ball in the opposite direction.
Swing Bowling
Movement of the ball through the air, caused by the difference in air flow over the shiny and rough sides. Conventional swing works best with a newer ball.

T

Tail-ender Players
A player batting near the end of the order, selected for bowling rather than batting.
Third man Fielding
A fielding position behind square on the off side, near the boundary, covering edges and cuts that beat the slips.
Toss Rules
The coin flip before play. The winning captain chooses whether to bat or bowl first, a decision shaped by the pitch, the weather and the format.

W

Wicket Rules
Three different things depending on context: the set of stumps, a dismissal, and the pitch itself. Which one is meant is usually clear from the sentence.
Wicket-keeper Players
The fielder positioned behind the stumps at the batter's end, the only one permitted gloves and external leg guards.
Wide Rules
A delivery passing too far from the batter for them to play a normal shot. It costs a run and is bowled again. The limits are stricter in limited-overs cricket.

Y

Yorker Bowling
A delivery pitched right at the batter's feet. Difficult to score off and difficult to bowl, which is why it is the standard death-overs ball.

Read the Cricket Guides

Frequently Asked Questions

It explains 54 terms in plain English, grouped by batting, bowling, fielding, scoring, rules and players. Use the letter bar to jump, or the group buttons to narrow the list.

Leg before wicket. The batter is out when the ball hits the body or pad instead of the bat and the umpire judges it would have gone on to hit the stumps. Where the ball pitched and where it struck both matter, which is why the decision is so often reviewed.

A duck is being dismissed without scoring a run. Out to the first ball you face is a golden duck, and out without facing a ball at all is a diamond duck.

An over from which the bowler concedes no runs. Byes and leg byes are not charged to the bowler, so an over can still be a maiden even if the batters ran on it.

A delivery from a leg-spinner that turns the other way. It is bowled out of the back of the hand and spins in towards a right-handed batter instead of away, which is what makes it hard to read.

An illegal delivery, most often when the bowler's front foot lands beyond the popping crease. The batting side gets an extra run and the delivery has to be bowled again, and in most limited-overs cricket a front-foot no-ball also brings a free hit.

A wide is a ball the umpire judges too far from the batter to be played normally, and it is charged to the bowler. A bye is a run taken when the ball passes the bat without touching it, and it counts as an extra for the team rather than against the bowler.

The guides section goes further than a definition: there are guides on the basic rules, on how scoring works, on overs and wickets, and one on how LBW is actually decided.