Glossary of Cricket Terms


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Rabbit 1. n. colloquial term for a very poor batsman, usually selected for a team solely on bowling ability. cf. ferret.

Result 1. n. an expression of the final outcome of a match in the form "<side name> won by <margin>" or "Match drawn" or "Match tied".
2. n. a match in which one side wins, as opposed to a drawn or tied match. The sides drew the first match in the series, but got a result in the second.

Retire 1. v.i. (of a batsman) to voluntarily stop batting and allow the next batsman in the batting order to bat.

Retire Hurt 1. v.i. (of a batsman) to stop batting because of an injury sustained while batting and allow the next batsman in the batting order to bat.

Retired Hurt 1. n. the state of a batsman who has had to leave the field because of an injury sustained while batting, the batsman is not out and may return to continue his innings later if recovered.

Return 1. v.t. (of a fielder) to throw the ball from somewhere in the field back to the wicket-keeper or another fielder stationed near one of the wickets.
2. n. a throw from a fielder to the wicket-keeper or another fielder stationed near one of the wickets.

Return Crease 1. n. one of the white lines marked on the pitch on either side of each wicket, delineating the region where a bowler's back foot must land in order to bowl a legal delivery.

Reverse Sweep 1. n. a type of batsman's shot played by kneeling, often putting the back leg's knee on the pitch, turning the bat over, and swinging the it in a horizontal arc across the body from the leg side to the off side, hitting the ball to the off side, usually played to balls from a slow bowler that pitch near the batsman. cf. sweep.
2. v.i. to play a reverse sweep shot.
3. v.t. to hit the ball with a reverse sweep.

Reverse Swing 1. n. sideways movement of the ball through the air in its trajectory towards the batsman, caused by differential air flow over the surfaces of the ball, that occurs in the opposite direction to the swing on a new ball, and only occurs with an old ball. cf. swing. The bowler is getting some reverse swing with the old ball.
2. v.t. to get the ball to move sideways through the air using reverse swing(1). The bowler reverse swung the ball a long way.
3. v.i. (of the ball) to move sideways through the air because of reverse swing(1). The ball reverse swung a long way.
4. adj. describing a bowler who uses reverse swing(1) to move the ball. He is a reverse swing bowler.

Ring Field 1. n. a field arrangement consisting of the full ring of infielders square and in front of the wicket: point, cover, mid off, mid on, midwicket, square leg.

Rock 1. n. colloquial term for cricket ball.

Roll 1. v.t. to go over the pitch with a heavy rolling device designed to flatten the surface.

Roller 1. n. a heavy rolling device designed to flatten the surface of the pitch.

Rope 1. n. a thick rope used to mark the boundary of the field. The ball ran through the outfield and hit the rope.

Rough 1. n. a region of the pitch which has been scuffed and roughened by the action of bowlers' feet as they follow through their runs after bowling the ball, frequently used as a target by spin bowlers as it gives the ball more unpredictable spin and bounce.

Run 1. n. the unit of scoring.
2. n. the act of the batsmen scoring a run, by running between the wickets.
3. v.i. to run between the wickets in an attempt to score a run.

Run Chase 1. n. the situation in a match in which the side batting last needs to score a certain number of runs to win, especially if the time or overs available makes the target difficult to reach.
2. n. the effort made by the side batting last to score the runs required to win.

Run Out 1. n. when a batsman is out because of being outside his popping crease attempting to score runs when a fielder breaks his wicket with the ball.
2. adj. being out because of a run out.
3. v.t. to get a batsman out run out. To run out the batsman. or To run the batsman out.

Run Rate 1. n. a statistic equal to the number of runs scored by a side divided by the number of overs taken to score them.

Run Up 1. v.i. (of a bowler) to run or walk up to the bowling crease at the bowler's end as part of the process of bowling a ball.
2. n. the action of a bowler running up to bowl.
3. n. the area of the field behid the pitch used by a bowler for his run up.

Runner 1. n. a player who wears batting gear and carries a bat, who goes into the field to run for a batsman who is batting but is too injured to run.


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