Duck (cricket)

In cricket, a duck is a batsman's dismissal for a score of zero.

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' (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'". The name is believed to come from the shape of the number "0" being similar to that of a duck's egg, as in the case of the American English slang term "goose-egg" popular in baseball and the tennis term "love," derived from French l'oeuf ("the egg"). The Concise Oxford Dictionary still cites "duck's egg" as an alternative version of the term.

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 2007, 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. As things turned out, Australia won the match by an innings, and so Bradman did not get to bat a second time (had he batted, he would have needed at least 104 runs if dismissed or at least four runs if not out to get his average back to 100).

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