A duck is a score of zero: a batter is dismissed without scoring a run. The name comes from the shape of the number on the scorecard, a zero that looks like a duck's egg.
The Types of Duck
- Golden duck: out first ball faced, the most embarrassing kind.
- Silver duck: out second ball faced.
- Diamond duck: run out without facing a single ball. The batter did nothing wrong except be at the non-striker's end.
Pair and King Pair
A pair is a duck in both innings of a Test or first-class match. A king pair is a golden duck in both: out first ball in each innings.
Does a Duck Count Against a Batter's Average?
Yes. A duck is a completed innings that adds zero runs, so it drags the batting average down. A batter who stays not out on zero has also not been dismissed, so it doesn't count as a completed innings.
Why the Egg?
The scoreboard symbol 0 looks like an egg, and "duck's egg" became "duck" in cricket slang over time. It's one of the oldest bits of cricket vocabulary still in everyday use.
Find more terms like this in the Cricket Codex, and read about the batters who piled up runs instead in Adam Gilchrist: Modern Cricket Legend.
