Meaning of Rare Cricket Terms which may Sound Confusing

If you are a regular cricket-eye, then you must have heard the commenters say some words that are challenging to pick like Beamer, Nelson, and many more vocabularies. So here is the meaning of many rare cricket terms which may sound confusing which may confuse you when watching a game of cricket.

In India, cricket is not just a sport; it is considered a religion. A religion with the cricketers as the gods and Fans as the devotees. Let’s find out what these rare and confusing means.

Rare Cricket Terms which Sound Confusing

• Batting for a draw: This term is used when a batsman (usually in a test) tries to save his/her side from a bad situation for his/her team notably, by scoring doubles and singles/ not playing risky shots and intending if he or she wants the match to be a draw
• Fourth Stump: This is term is in-use by the commentators when they refer to the place outside the off stump (1^st stump from the left for a right-hander and 1^st stump from the right for a left-hander). They consider that there is another stump over there so that they could locate the place quickly.
• Nelson: This use used to refer to a score of 111 runs because it was believed that Admiral Hartio Nelson had only one leg, one arm, and one eye. For your knowledge, Admiral Hartio Nelson was an Admiral in the British navy. He lost his right eye when the debris of sand entered his eye when extinguishing a fire in a ship and lost his arm when shot by a musket. However, he did not lose his leg throughout his glorious life, but it was believed so.
• Anchor: It is similar to the first one, i.e., batting for a draw. This term is used when the commentators want to point out to a batsman (usually a batsman of the first three batsmen) who plays defensively and assures that the inning is taken to its full strength.
• Quarter Hat-trick: What comes to your mind when I say the word ‘quarter’? I am sure you think of a circle getting cut into four-part, and you shade one part as ¼ which is termed as a quarter, but here (in cricket), there is no 1/4^th of a wicket, it is different. A quarter wicket refers to six wickets on six consecutive balls! That is every ball a wicket in an over!

• Duck: It is referred to as a batsman that gets out without scoring a single run. Surprisingly, there are many kinds of ducks in the law of cricket which you may not know about
  • A golden duck takes place when a batsman goes off the first ball he faces.
  • A platinum duck takes place when a batsman is dismissed off the first ball of the innings.
  • A diamond duck takes place when a batsman gets out without even facing a ball (mostly due to Mankading, run-out or when obstructing the rules of the game)
  • A Silver duck takes place when a batsman is off the crease after facing two deliveries but still making no runs out of it.
  • A Bronze duck takes place when a batsman is out without scoring a run in the first three balls.
  • A pair (of ducks) is caused when a batsman is out on a duck on both the innings of a test match.
  • A king’s pair is triggered when a batsman is gone for a golden duck on both the innings of a test match.
  • A Golden goose is produced when a batsman is out on his/her debut match.
  • A Titanium duck occurs when an opening batsman is out on the first ball of the innings.
  • A Laughing duck is caused when the last batsman of the team is out, and innings of that team are finished as well.
• Mankading: This was invented, not a person of US, Australia? No. it was an Indian (Vinoo Mankad) who invented this beautiful trick. Here, you just have to intend as if you are bowling, let the non-striker out of the crease, and have the bails off. You are done! This trick may help in many pressurized situations, where the big hitter is at the non-striker end.
• Beamer: Beamer is a ball that is intended directly to the head of a batsman and is an offense (by MCC) irrespective of the speed and the effects. One such incident took place during the 2014 Asia Cup, where Abdul Rehman, a Pakistani Bowler bowled three consecutive beamers to the Bangla Tigers (Bangladesh) and was removed from the attack without bowling even a single bowl and yet giving eight runs.
• Howzzat: This is a term often used by the bowlers when appealing to the umpire (usually for LBWs). It literally means the bowler asking the umpire, “How’s that batsman, is he out?”
• Arm Ball: It is usually bowled by a spinner to confuse the batsman by not spinning. It usually works when bowled ant non-regular intervals in a random pattern so that the batsman cannot guess which one is an arm ball and which one is not.

I hope you enjoyed the article and got to know about new words that you may be using or listening without knowing what it meant.