In cricket, a duck is a batsman’s dismissal for a score of zero.
ORIGIN OF THE TERM
The term is a shortening of the term “duck’s egg”, the latter being used long before Test cricket began.
When referring to the Prince of Wales’s (the future Edward VII ) score of nought on 17 July 1866, a contemporary newspaper wrote that the Prince “retired to the royal pavilion on a “duck’s egg”” .
* Players who are dismissed by the first ball they face are said to have been dismissed for a GOLDEN DUCK .
This term is applied uniformly throughout the cricket world.
* As an extension of the golden duck, a SILVER DUCK and BRONZE DUCK can refer to being dismissed for nought on the second ball and third ball respectively. There are no alternative names for these ducks, but these terms are not nearly as common as golden duck.
* A batsman who is dismissed without facing a ball (most usually run out from the non-striker’s end, but alternatively stumped or run out off a wide delivery) is said to be out for a DIAMOND DUCK.
* An opening batsman who is dismissed on the first ball of a team’s innings is said to be out for a diamond duck , PLATINUM DUCK or ROYAL DUCK.
* An opening batsman who is dismissed on the first ball of a team’s innings without facing a ball is said to be out for a TITANIUM DUCK , though due to the extreme rarity of this occurring, this term is not widely used.
* A batsman who is dismissed for a duck concluding the batting team’s innings is said to be out for a LAUGHING DUCK .
*A batsman who is dismissed for a duck on the first ball of the match in his or her team’s first match of the season is said to be out for a GOLDEN GOOSE.
PAIR
To be dismissed for nought in both innings of the same two-innings match is to be dismissed for a pair , because the two noughts together are thought to resemble a pair of spectacles.
To be dismissed first ball in both innings (i.e. , two golden ducks) is to suffer the indignity of making a king pair .
DUCK TALES
-The first duck in a Test match was made in the very first Test of all, between Australia and England at Melbourne in March 1877, when Ned Gregory was caught by Andrew Greenwood off the bowling of James Lillywhite .
– As of 2014, the record for the most ducks in Test cricket is held by West Indies player Courtney Walsh , who was out for nought on 43 occasions,while the overall first-class record is 156, set by Worcestershire and England player Reg Perks .
– One particularly high-profile example of a duck came in 1948, when Don Bradman was playing his final Test match for Australia, against England at The Oval . In Australia’s first innings, Bradman was bowled for a duck by Eric Hollies , causing his Test average to fall from 101.39 to 99.94; had he scored just four runs, his average would have been 100.
– In the first Test of Australia’s tour of India in 1986,.with the cumulative scores tied, Indian tailender Maninder Singh was trapped LBW by Greg Matthews for a four ball duck, ensuring just the second tied Test in Test Cricket history.
– Indian all-rounder Ajit Agarkar earned the unfortunate nickname “Bombay Duck” after being dismissed for ducks seven consecutive times in Tests against Australia.
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