Archives

Backing up - Backing up: (1) Non-striker's action in walking up the pitch as the bowler bowls, in order to be ready for a quick run (similar to 'taking a lead' in baseball.)

As the ball is in play at this point, he risks being run out if the bowler spots him out of his ground, although some batsmen seem to regard such a dismissal as unsporting conduct on the bowler's part, rather than sloppy cricket on their own.

(2) Fielder's action in taking a position on the opposite side of the wicket from the fielder throwing the ball, in order to prevent overthrows. Its absence is the principal cause of recrimination within club second XIs.

Backward - Fielding position prefix indicating 'slightly behind square' - usually used only as backward point or backward square leg. Bad light - The cause of several near-riots in Test match crowds.

The law makes provision for the umpires to suspend play if, in their opinion, there is a risk of serious injury to the batsmen due to poor visibility. Recently, however, their concern appears to have been more for the batsmen's wickets than their safety, hence the spectators' disgruntlement.

Many one-day matches are now played under floodlights; first class playing conditions do not at present allow this, but moves are afoot to permit their use as a supplement to natural light in Test matches.

Indeed, floodlights have been used to keep the teams on the field during Australia's 1997-8 series against New Zealand and South Africa.

Bad luck, mate - Remark made by the batsmen in the fielding side to a dismissed opponent who, in trying to hit a good-length ball through the covers with his bat at an angle, has been bowled off the inside edge of the bat.

Bails - The two pegs that are held horizontally in grooves at the top of the stumps. The bails and stumps together comprise a wicket. Please see diagram below for a graphical representation of the bails.

Ball - (1) Constructed of a cork centre wound with string, with a cover of polished red leather, a cricket ball weighs 156 gm (seniors) or 142 gm (junior or female). At most levels of the game, each innings begins with a new ball, whose gradual softening and loss of shine cause its behaviour to change as the innings progresses.

Ball - (2) A delivery from the bowler. Ball tampering - Currently out of fashion as a topic for cricketing debate, but much in vogue following England's Test series against Pakistan in 1992, in which a ball was changed by the umpires without explanation, and South Africa in 1994.

Ball tampering takes two main forms, both of which are illegal. Some bowlers use tools or their fingernails to raise the seam, thereby making it more likely to swing. More recently, bowlers have damaged the surface of one side of the ball, making reverse swing easier to achieve.

Bat - The wooden paddle with which the batsman defends his wicket and scores his runs. The law limits its width to 4.25 inches and its length to 38 inches, although such a bat would be too long even for a batsman of six foot five.

There is no limit on weight, although most bats weigh between 36 and 48 ounces. The blade of the bat has a flat face, slightly rounded at the edges; the back is shaped so that the blade is only about an inch thick at the shoulders, but swells to form a hump about six inches from the toe.

This corresponds to the middle or 'sweet spot' of the bat, where its hitting power is greatest. The handle is made of as many as 12 pieces of cane, with rubber leaves to provide springing.

The quality of the handle can make a huge difference to the feel and performance of a bat, so much so that most makers offer a 'reblading' service, where a cracked or worn-out blade is replaced, so the batsman can continue with a trusted handle.

Many modern handles are oval in section, which allows the batsman to judge the correct position of his hands more easily than a round handle.

The handle is wound with string and covered with one or more tubular rubber grips, according to the batsman's preference and the size of his hands. Replacing a grip is a job akin to fitting a tyre to a tractor wheel - only much, much harder. Do not try this at home.

Bat-pad - Fielding position close in on off or leg side, too close to catch a well-hit ball, but ready for one that hits the edge of the bat and rebounds from the pad.

Batting order - The order in which the members of a team go out to bat. A batsman is referred to individually by a number, according to his position in the order.

Numbers 1 and 2 open the innings (number 1 faces the first ball), number 3 comes in at the fall of the first wicket, and so on down to number 11, who comes in when nine wickets have fallen. Typically, numbers 1 to 6 are specialist batsmen, the wicketkeeper bats at 7, followed by the specialist bowlers.

Top-order (1,2,3) batsmen have to be adept against pace and the new ball; 4 and 5 will often be the two most attacking batsmen, while 5 or 6 may be the best place for a 'spin specialist', who is most useful when the ball is older and the slow bowlers are in action.

Below number 6, specialization ceases to matter, and the order is decided on a linear scale of ability. C.R. Williams had one outing at 8 this season, but otherwise seldom bats higher than 10.

Batting shots - See Block, Chinese cut, Cut, Drive, Edge, Flash, French cut, Glance, Harrow drive, Hook, Late cut, Leg glance, Lofted drive, Pull, Reverse sweep, Slog, Square cut, Sweep.

Beamer - A fast, head-high full toss. Beamers are dangerous, and a bowler who bowls one on purpose will be warned by the umpire and, if he persists, prevented from bowling again in that innings.

Behind the bowler's arm - Most cricket grounds have large, white sightscreens at either end, to provide a clear, unobstructed background against which the batsman can see the ball.

Anything moving in front of or close to the screen at the bowler's end causes a distraction, and play will be held up until it is removed.

On a club ground, such delays are usually caused by wandering dogs, American tourists or members of the batting side walking the boundary when they think the captain might be looking for someone to take over the scorebook.

At a Test match, it is more likely to be a corporate guest in a hideous blazer, wobbling back from his hospitality lunch at ten to three. (In Tests, play resumes at 1:40.)

Best bowling - The occasion on which a bowler has bowled most consistently or effectively, and done most to help his team win the match. Well, you'd think so, wouldn't you?

In fact, it tends to be used as a statistician's equivalent to a batsman's highest score, and is simply the occasion on which he took most wickets in an innings, with the number of runs conceded used as a tie-breaker.

So a bowler's career summary may show his 'best bowling' as six for 150, when the opposition made 600 and won by an innings, ignoring the time he took five for 25 and turned a low-scoring match in his side's favour.

Block - A defensive batting shot, purely to keep the ball off the wicket.

Blocker - A batsman of sound defensive technique, and sometimes little else. May be useful as an opener, where his sheer stubbornness can blunt the new-ball bowling and bore the bowlers into making mistakes. Later in the innings, his lack of scoring shots can stall the team's momentum and hand the initiative back to the opposition.

Blockhole - The depression sometimes made in a dusty pitch where the batsmen take guard. A ball 'in the blockhole' is a yorker-length delivery.

Bodyline - Tactic employed by England during the 1932-33 Ashes series in Australia. By setting a predominantly leg side field and having his fast bowlers bowl at the batsman's body to generate catches, England captain D. R. Jardine won the Ashes but came close to destroying the Commonwealth.

In the aftermath of this notorious series, the law was changed to limit the number of fielders behind square on the leg side to two, to prevent further use of this tactic.

Bosie - See Googly

Bouncer - A fast, shortpitched ball, bowled to rise off the pitch to the height of the batsman's chest or head. Legal, and less dangerous than the beamer, but the umpire may still warn and remove a bowler who bowls bouncers merely to intimidate the batsman.

Boundary - (1) The edge of the playing area, usually 50 to 80 metres from the wicket and marked by a line, rope or fence.

However, in practice, there is no fixed size or shape for the field, although large deviations from a low-eccentricity ellipse are discouraged. (2) A ball that crosses the boundary, scoring four runs if it touches the ground first, or six if it reaches the boundary on the full.

Bowled - The most basic, and still the most satisfying, way to get a batsman out. The batsman is out bowled if the ball, either straight from the bowler's hand or by way of the batsman's bat or body, hits his wicket with enough force to dislodge at least one bail.

Incidentally, if proof were needed that cricket is the natural game of the pedant, the MCC sees fit to state in the laws that if the ball hits the the wicket by way of the pad, even if it satisfies the criteria for an lbw, the batsman is out bowled, not lbw.

How many bowlers, having uprooted the off stump, would appeal for lbw? I suppose it must have happened.

Bowling, bowler, bowl - A player who bowls is known as a bowler. Bowling is the act of propelling the ball with a straight arm towards the batsman's wicket. The ball is not thrown - if the bowler straightens his elbow in delivery, the umpire calls 'no-ball' (this is debatable) - hence the need for fast bowlers to run up to 30 metres to build up sufficient speed.

The bowler will usually aim to hit the ball on the pitch before it reaches the batsman - a full toss is easy to hit. A fast bowler will bowl at speeds in the range of 140 - 160 kph. A medium pace bowler will bowl from 100 - 130 kph. A spin bowler will typically bowl at speeds in the range of 80 - 90 kph.

Bowling a maiden over - To bowl an over in which no runs are scored off the bat, nor from a wide or no-ball.

Bowling analysis - The section at the bottom of the scoresheet in which each ball bowled is recorded. At the end of the innings, this data is then used to produce summary statistics for each bowler, his 'bowling figures'.

The values usually given are the number of overs bowled, the number of those that were maidens, the number of runs conceded and the number of wickets taken. Sometimes these are given just as numbers, without explanation, but the sequence is always the same, so '17-5-36-3' means '17 overs, five maidens, three for 36'. Incidentally, partial overs, usually where the innings ended midway through an over, are recorded as pseudo-decimals, so '12.5 overs' means 12 overs and five balls.

Bowling crease - One of the two transverse lines at either end of the pitch, on which the wickets are set.

Box - Curiously known in cricket catalogues as an 'abdominal protector', this is a batsman's best friend and the first piece of cricket equipment a new player should own. The only thing worse than tucking in a cold box from one's own bag is borrowing a warm, sweaty one from someone else's.

Bradman, D.G. - Sir Donald Bradman (1908 - 2001) dominated his chosen sport of cricket like no other has dominated any sport. Clearly the best batsman to have played the modern game he was a relentless accumulator of runs, often at a rapid rate.

He holds or held almost too many records to tabulate. His Test record was such that he was only four runs short of averaging 100. No other player in the history of the game has averaged over 65 in international cricket. He took few risks, but was proficient with all strokes.

His best scoring stroke was probably the pull, played all along the ground in the arc from mid on to backward square leg. He was an excellent fielder, particularly in the covers, and a capable leg spin bowler. He made 19 hundreds against England between 1928 and 1948, including two triple centuries and 6 double centuries.

And of course, he set the world's record score of 452 not out vs. Queensland in 1930. He was Australia's captain between 1936 and 1948, during which time his side won 11 tests, to England's 3. He kept the Ashes through 4 series.

Broken wicket - The wicket is said to be 'broken' or 'down' when one or both bails have been dislodged from their grooves by the ball. If - for example, when the batsmen are running overthrows from a rebound - a fielder wants to break a wicket whose bails are already off, he may first replace a bail, or knock or pull a stump from the ground while touching it with the ball. Don't worry - I've never seen this happen! See also Down wicket.

Bye - Run scored from a ball that hit neither the batsman's bat nor his body. Rare at Test level, but can be the top scorer in a club side's innings. Due to libel laws, I'll refrain from comment here.

[Courtesy: Wanderers CC]

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