adminOn the point with Aubrey Kamba
IT has been a very long week for me. I have exams in the next two weeks and then there is the VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL). So between studying and watching the most beautiful game in the world I came to remember all the funny weird words that are found in cricket. In reality these words mean something different than in cricket.Maiden
We all know what a maiden is, that is an unmarried girl. In cricket though, if a bowler completes an over without any runs being scored from it, it is termed a maiden.
Duck and a Golden Duck
We all know what a duck is; it is a water bird with a broad blunt bill, short legs, webbed feet, and a waddling gait. In cricket it is not what we know it as it is. If a batsman gets out without scoring any runs, he is said to be out for a duck. The origin of this term is unclear, but commonly rumoured to be because the ‘0’ next to his name on the scorecard resembles a duck egg. A batsman out for a duck while facing his first delivery of the innings is out for a golden duck.
Partnership
The runs scored while two batsmen bat together are called their partnership. There are ten partnerships per completed innings, labelled from first-wicket partnership to tenth-wicket partnership, in order.
Night watch-man
A night-watchman is a batsman who comes in to bat out of order towards the end of a day’s play in a multi-day game, in order to ‘protect’ better batsmen.
To elucidate, the batting order in an innings is usually arranged with two specialist openers who begin the innings, then the rest of the batsmen in order of skill, best to worst. The job of the openers is to bat for a while against the new ball. A brand new ball is very hard and bouncy, and fast bowlers can use this to great advantage and can often get batsmen out. So it is harder to bat against a new ball. It is also somewhat difficult to begin batting. A new batsman is more likely to get out than one who has been on the field and scoring runs for a while.
Now, in a multi-day game, it sometimes happens that a team’s innings will have only a few men out towards the end of the day’s play. If a batsman gets out with about half an hour or less until stumps, the batting captain will sometimes send in a poor batsman next instead of a good one.
The idea is that the poor batsman (the night-watchman) will last 20 minutes and so protect the good batsman from having to make a fresh start that evening and again the next morning.
It is essentially a sacrifice ploy. Of course, it can backfire dangerously if the night-watchman does get out before stumps. The night-watchman is a tactic that is used about 50% of the time when the appropriate situation arises (which itself occurs perhaps once every 4 or 5 games). It just depends on how the captain feels at the time.
Sightscreen
A sightscreen is a large screen positioned on the boundary so that it forms a backdrop behind the bowler, so that the striker can see the ball clearly. Sightscreens are white when a red ball is used, and black for a white ball.
Rabbit
A rabbit is a player (almost invariably a bowler, but sometimes a wicket-keeper) who is a very poor batsman. A ferret is an extremely poor batsman (so called because he “goes in after the rabbits”).
Well, it has been good as usual; I need to catch up with my studies for the exam hope to catch on the point this time next week
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