Cricket Glossary: 120 Cricket Terms in Plain Words

Batting terms

• Batter: a player whose turn it is to bat. Two batters are on the field at a time.
• Striker: the batter facing the bowler.
• Non-striker: the batter standing at the bowler’s end, waiting to run.
• Opener: one of the two batters who start the innings.
• Middle order: the batters who come in after the top three, usually at numbers four to seven.
• Tail-ender: a batter near the bottom of the order, usually a bowler who is not picked for batting.
• Nightwatchman: a lower-order batter sent in late in the day in a Test, so a better batter does not have to risk the last few overs.
• Guard: the mark a batter makes on the crease to know where the stumps are. The batter asks the umpire for it.
• Innings: one team’s turn to bat, or one batter’s turn at the crease. The word is the same for one or many.
• Partnership: the runs two batters add together before one of them gets out.
• Forward defence: a blocking shot played with a straight bat and a step forward. It aims to stop the ball, not to score.
• Drive: a straight-bat shot that hits a full ball along the ground in front of the batter.
• Cut: a cross-bat shot that hits a short, wide ball square on the off side.
• Pull: a cross-bat shot that hits a short ball to the leg side, at about waist height.
• Hook: like a pull, but played to a ball at shoulder or head height.
• Sweep: a shot played on one knee, swinging the bat across to hit a spinner’s ball to the leg side.
• Reverse sweep: a sweep with the bat turned the other way, sending the ball to the off side.
• Edge: a ball that clips the side of the bat instead of the middle. Edges often fly to the keeper or slips.
• Half-century: a batter’s score of 50 or more in one innings.
• Century: a batter’s score of 100 or more in one innings.
• Duck: getting out for 0.
• Golden duck: getting out for 0 on the first ball faced.

Bowling terms

• Over: six legal balls bowled by one bowler from one end.
• Delivery: one ball bowled.
• Pace bowling: fast bowling that relies on speed, bounce and movement.
• Seam: the raised stitching around the ball. A seam bowler lands the ball on it to make it change direction off the pitch.
• Swing: sideways movement of the ball in the air before it bounces.
• Reverse swing: swing with an older, worn ball that moves the opposite way to a new ball.
• Spin bowling: slow bowling that makes the ball turn sideways after it bounces.
• Off spin: spin that turns from the off side toward the leg side for a right-handed batter.
• Leg spin: spin that turns from the leg side toward the off side for a right-handed batter. It is bowled with the wrist.
• Googly: a leg spinner’s ball that turns the opposite way to a normal leg break.
• Doosra: an off spinner’s ball that turns the opposite way to a normal off break.
• Arm ball: a finger spinner’s ball that does not turn and carries straight on.
• Carrom ball: a spinner’s ball flicked out between the thumb and a bent middle finger.
• Flipper: a leg spinner’s ball squeezed out with backspin. It stays low and hurries on to the batter.
• Zooter: a rare leg-spin variation that barely turns and skids on low.
• Line: the direction of a ball, such as at off stump or down the leg side.
• Good length: a ball that lands where the batter is unsure whether to step forward or back.
• Yorker: a ball that lands at the batter’s feet, right on the crease. It is hard to hit and hard to keep out.
• Bouncer: a fast, short ball that rises toward the batter’s chest or head.
• Full toss: a ball that reaches the batter without bouncing.
• Beamer: a full toss that reaches the batter above waist height. It is dangerous and is called a no-ball.
• Slower ball: a fast bowler’s ball bowled at lower speed on purpose, to fool the batter’s timing.
• Spell: a run of overs bowled by one bowler from the same end without a rest.
• Maiden: an over in which the bowler gives away no runs.
• Death overs: the last few overs of a limited-overs innings, when batters swing at almost everything.
• Hat-trick: three wickets by the same bowler with three balls in a row.

Fielding terms and positions

• Wicketkeeper: the fielder who stands behind the striker’s stumps. Only the keeper may wear gloves and leg pads.
• Off side: the half of the field in front of the batter’s body as they stand side-on. For a right-hander it is the left side as the bowler sees it.
• Leg side: the half of the field behind the batter’s back as they stand side-on. It is also called the on side.
• Slip: a catcher standing next to the wicketkeeper on the off side, waiting for edges.
• Gully: a catcher on the off side, a little wider than the slips.
• Point: a fielder level with the batter on the off side.
• Cover: a fielder on the off side between point and mid-off.
• Mid-off: a fielder near the bowler on the off side.
• Mid-on: a fielder near the bowler on the leg side.
• Midwicket: a fielder on the leg side between mid-on and square leg.
• Square leg: a fielder level with the batter on the leg side. One umpire stands here too.
• Fine leg: a fielder behind the batter on the leg side, near the boundary.
• Third man: a fielder behind the batter on the off side, near the boundary.
• Long-off: a fielder on the boundary behind the bowler, on the off side.
• Long-on: a fielder on the boundary behind the bowler, on the leg side.
• Overthrow: extra runs the batters take when a fielder’s throw misses its target and runs away.
• Dropped catch: a catch a fielder gets hands on but fails to hold. The batter stays in.

Dismissals

The laws give ten ways for a batter to be out. The first five in this list account for nearly every wicket you will see. The scorecard guide shows how each one is written on a batting card.

• Wicket: a word with three meanings. It can be the set of stumps and bails, the pitch, or the dismissal of a batter.
• Appeal: the fielding side asking the umpire if the batter is out, usually by shouting “How’s that?”. An umpire cannot give a batter out without one.
• Bowled: the bowler’s ball hits the stumps and knocks off a bail.
• Caught: a fielder catches the ball off the bat before it touches the ground.
• Caught behind: caught by the wicketkeeper.
• Caught and bowled: caught by the bowler off their own ball.
• LBW: leg before wicket. The ball hits the batter’s body, not the bat, and the umpire judges it would have gone on to hit the stumps.
• Run out: a fielder breaks the stumps with the ball while a batter is short of the crease during a run.
• Stumped: the wicketkeeper breaks the stumps while the striker is out of the crease and not trying to run.
• Hit wicket: the striker knocks the bails off with the bat or body while playing the ball or setting off for a run.
• Hit the ball twice: the batter hits the ball a second time on purpose, other than to protect the stumps.
• Obstructing the field: the batter gets in the fielders’ way on purpose, by word or action. Handling the ball falls under this.
• Timed out: the next batter takes too long to be ready after a wicket falls. The laws allow three minutes.
• Retired out: a batter leaves the field without being injured or ill and does not come back. It counts as a dismissal.
• Retired hurt: a batter leaves the field injured or ill. It is not a dismissal, and the batter may return later.

Scoring and match terms

• Run: the unit of scoring. Batters score one by running to the opposite end of the pitch.
• Boundary: the edge of the field. A ball that bounces or rolls over it scores four runs.
• Six: a ball hit over the boundary without bouncing. It scores six runs.
• Extras: runs added to the team total that no batter hit: wides, no-balls, byes, leg byes and penalty runs.
• Wide: a ball too far from the batter to hit with a normal shot. It costs one run and is bowled again.
• No-ball: an illegal delivery, most often because the bowler’s front foot lands past the crease. It costs one run and is bowled again.
• Free hit: the ball after a no-ball in limited-overs cricket. The batter cannot be out bowled, caught, lbw or stumped from it.
• Bye: a run taken when the ball misses the bat and the batter’s body.
• Leg bye: a run taken when the ball hits the batter’s body but not the bat.
• Run rate: the runs a team scores per over. A side on 90 after 10 overs has a run rate of 9.
• Required run rate: the runs per over a chasing side still needs to win.
• Net run rate: a team’s scoring rate across a tournament minus the rate scored against it. It splits teams level on points. See the net run rate guide.
• Strike rate: for a batter, the runs scored per 100 balls faced.
• Economy rate: for a bowler, the runs conceded per over bowled.
• Batting average: a batter’s total runs divided by the number of times they were out.
• All-rounder: a player picked for both batting and bowling.
• Toss: the coin flip before the match. The captain who wins it chooses to bat or bowl first.
• Powerplay: a block of overs in limited-overs cricket when only two fielders may stand outside the inner circle.
• Declaration: a captain closing their side’s innings before all ten wickets fall, to leave time to bowl the other side out.
• Follow-on: the side batting first making the other side bat again straight away. In a five-day match it needs a first-innings lead of 200 runs.
• Draw: a Test or other multi-day match that runs out of time before it is finished.
• Tie: a completed match in which both sides end on the same score.
• Super Over: one extra over per side, used in many limited-overs competitions to settle a tie.
• No result: a limited-overs match stopped by weather before enough overs were bowled to decide it.
• DLS method: the maths used to set a fair new target when rain shortens a limited-overs match.
• Close of play: the end of a day in a multi-day match. It is also called stumps.

The different lengths of match are covered in the guide to cricket formats.

Umpiring and laws

• Umpire: one of the two officials on the field who apply the laws and give decisions.
• Third umpire: an official off the field who checks close decisions on video replays.
• DRS: the Decision Review System. It lets a team ask the third umpire to check an on-field decision.
• Umpire’s call: a review verdict when the ball tracking is too close to be sure. The on-field decision stands.
• Pitch: the hard strip in the middle of the field. The two sets of stumps stand 22 yards apart.
• Popping crease: the line four feet in front of the stumps. A batter is safe behind it, and a bowler’s front foot must not land fully past it.
• Stumps: the three upright wooden posts at each end of the pitch.
• Bails: the two small pieces of wood that rest on top of the stumps.
• Dead ball: the state of the ball between deliveries. Nobody can score or be out while it is dead.
• Short run: a run that does not count because a batter turned without grounding the bat behind the crease.
• Penalty runs: five runs given to a side when the other side breaks certain laws, such as the ball hitting a helmet left on the ground.
• Bad light: light the umpires judge too poor for safe play. They may stop the match until it improves.
• Thirty-yard circle: the inner ring marked on the field for limited-overs matches. Fielding limits are counted against it.
• Substitute: a player who fields in place of an injured or ill teammate. A substitute may not bat or bowl.

Umpire signals and scorecard codes

The umpire at the bowler’s end signals each decision to the scorers. These are the ones you will see most.

Scorecards shorten many of the terms above. This table lists the common codes.

To see these codes on a real card, open any match on the Crics Live cricket results page.