It’s another quiz question. We are testing your knowledge with this …
Question: In cricket, what is the term used when a player is bowled out by the first ball they face? (Image is a big clue!)
Answer: Yes it’s a Golden Duck!
‘Out for a duck’ means out for zero, but why the word ‘duck’? The word is a shortening of the term duck’s egg. But why a duck’s egg?
In 1856, the Prince of Wales scored zero in a game of cricket. One newspaper at the time said that the Price had ‘retired to the royal pavilion on a duck’s egg’. The duck’s egg was a reference to his score of zero because the shape of a duck’s egg and a zero are both oval. This also applies to the tennis term ‘love’ derived, according to one theory, from the French l’œuf (the egg).
A golden duck is when a batter is out for zero after their first ever ball is bowled to them.
Although you can also be out for a diamond duck, a platinum duck or a king pair. A diamond duck is when the batter is out without facing any legal balls at all. A platinum duck (although some may use a different term such as a royal duck) is when the batter is out on the first ball of the first innings of the match.
You would probably hang your head in shame if you were out for a king pair, this is when you are out for a golden duck in both innings of a match. When you put the two noughts together they resemble a pair of glasses, hence a king pair.
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