Cricket and fantasy cricket glossary
Short answer: This glossary explains the cricket and fantasy-cricket terms used across Yorker11, in plain language. Each entry gives a short definition and, where we have one, a link to a guide that goes deeper. Fantasy scoring values differ between games, so always check your own game's rules.
A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T V W Y
A
- All-rounder
- A player picked for both batting and bowling. In fantasy terms, a genuine all-rounder bats in the top six or seven and bowls most of their quota. →
- Average (batting)
- Runs scored divided by the number of times a batter has been dismissed.
- Average (bowling)
- Runs conceded per wicket taken. Lower is better.
B
- Bat first
- The side that bats in the first innings and sets a target. →
- Batting order
- The sequence in which batters come in. It is the best single guide to how many balls a batter will face. →
- Bits-and-pieces player
- A player who bats a little and bowls a little without a full role in either. Usually a weak fantasy pick. →
- Bouncer
- A short-pitched ball that rises towards the batter's chest or head.
- Boundary
- A ball that reaches the rope along the ground (four runs) or clears it in the air (six runs).
C
- Captain (fantasy)
- The player whose fantasy points are multiplied, usually by two, in most fantasy formats. Check your game's rules for the exact multiplier. →
- Chase
- Batting second with a target to reach.
- Core picks
- The players with the longest, most reliable roles in a match, who usually form most of a fantasy XI. →
- Cutter
- A seam delivery where the bowler drags the fingers across the ball to make it slow down and deviate off the pitch. →
D
- Day-night match
- A match that starts in daylight and finishes under floodlights. India's home ODIs usually start at 14:00 IST. →
- Death overs
- The last overs of a limited-overs innings (usually overs 16–20 in a T20, 41–50 in an ODI), when batters attack. →
- Dew
- Moisture that settles on the grass on cool, humid evenings. A wet ball is harder to grip, which usually helps the side batting second. →
- Dew-point spread
- The gap between the air temperature and the dew point. We count an evening as dew-prone when the 10 pm gap is 4°C or less. →
- Differential
- A player relatively few people pick for a match. Worth choosing only for a concrete cricket reason. →
- DLS method
- Duckworth-Lewis-Stern: the method used to set a revised target when overs are lost to rain or other interruptions. →
- Dot ball
- A legal delivery from which no run is scored.
- Duck
- A batter dismissed without scoring. Some fantasy formats deduct points for it. →
E
- Economy rate
- Runs conceded per over by a bowler. Many fantasy formats reward low economy in T20s and ODIs. →
- Extras
- Runs not credited to a batter: wides, no-balls, byes and leg byes.
F
- Fantasy points system
- The scoring rules that turn runs, wickets, catches and bonuses into points. Every game sets its own values. →
- Finger spin
- Spin imparted mainly with the fingers: off-spin and left-arm orthodox. Usually affected most by a wet ball. →
- Finisher
- A batter, usually at five to seven, whose job is to score quickly at the end of an innings. →
- Five-wicket haul
- Five or more wickets by one bowler in an innings, often a fantasy bonus milestone. →
- Flat pitch
- A hard, even pitch with little help for bowlers; usually high scoring. →
- Floater
- A batter without a fixed position, moved up or down depending on the match situation. →
- Follow-on
- In a Test, the side batting first can make the other side bat again immediately if it leads by at least 200 runs after the first innings (in a five-day match). →
- Free hit
- The delivery after a front-foot no-ball in limited-overs cricket. The batter cannot be out except by the few methods allowed on a no-ball, such as run out.
G
- Good length
- The length that leaves a batter unsure whether to play forward or back. Exactly where it is depends on the pitch and the bowler's pace. →
- Googly
- A wrist spinner's delivery that turns the opposite way to the stock ball.
- Green pitch
- A pitch with a covering of live grass, which usually helps seam bowlers early on. →
H
- Hat-trick
- Three wickets with consecutive deliveries by the same bowler (they can span overs or innings within a match).
I
- Impact of the toss
- How much winning the toss changes the expected result. It is largest where dew or a deteriorating pitch makes one innings clearly easier. →
- Innings
- One side's turn to bat. Limited-overs matches have one innings per side; Tests have up to two.
L
- LBW
- Leg before wicket: a dismissal when the ball would have hit the stumps but struck the batter's body first, subject to conditions in the Laws.
- Left-arm orthodox
- Finger spin bowled by a left-armer, turning the ball away from a right-handed batter. →
- Leg-spin
- Wrist spin from a right-arm bowler that turns away from a right-handed batter. →
M
- Maiden over
- An over in which the bowler concedes no runs off the bat and no wides or no-balls. →
- Match-up
- How a particular bowler type tends to fare against a particular batter or line-up, for example left-arm spin against right-handers. →
- Middle overs
- The overs between the powerplay and the death, usually controlled by spinners in India. →
- Minimum overs for a result
- Under ICC playing conditions: 20 overs per side in an ODI and 5 overs per side in a T20I, unless a side is bowled out or the target is reached sooner. →
N
- New ball
- A fresh ball at the start of an innings, or in a Test when the fielding captain takes one after 80 overs. →
- Night watchman
- A lower-order batter sent in late in a Test day to protect a specialist batter. →
- No-ball
- An illegal delivery, most often for overstepping the crease, which gives the batting side an extra run and an extra ball.
O
P
- Pitch report
- The pre-match description of the pitch by broadcasters or ground staff: grass, moisture, hardness and expected behaviour. →
- Playing XI
- The eleven players named at the toss. A player outside it scores nothing in fantasy. →
- Powerplay
- The fielding-restriction overs at the start of an innings: overs 1–6 in a T20I, overs 1–10 in an ODI. →
Q
- Quota
- The maximum overs one bowler may bowl: four in a T20, ten in an ODI, a fifth of the overs in a shortened match. →
R
- Reverse swing
- Late swing with an old ball, once one side has become much rougher than the other; common on dry, abrasive pitches. →
- Run out
- A dismissal when the fielding side breaks the wicket while a batter is out of their ground. Some fantasy formats credit the fielders involved. →
- Run rate
- Runs scored per over by a batting side.
S
- Seam bowling
- Fast or medium-paced bowling that uses the ball's seam to make it deviate off the pitch. →
- Slower ball
- A deliberately slower delivery from a seamer, disguised to deceive the batter.
- Strike rate (batting)
- Runs scored per 100 balls faced. Many fantasy formats reward high strike rates in T20s. →
- Strike rate (bowling)
- Balls bowled per wicket taken. Lower is better.
- Stumping
- A dismissal by the wicketkeeper when the batter is out of the crease and not attempting a run. More common against spin. →
- Sunset gap
- On our match pages: the time between sunset and the start or the innings break, which shows how much of a match is played under lights. →
- Super over
- A one-over-per-side eliminator used to decide tied T20Is and tied ODIs where playing conditions require a winner.
- Swing
- Sideways movement of the ball through the air, usually with a newer ball.
T
- T20I
- A Twenty20 International: 20 overs per side. →
- Tail
- The lower-order batters, usually bowlers, at numbers eight to eleven.
- Team balance
- The mix of batters, bowlers, all-rounders and keepers in a fantasy XI, and how it is split between the two sides. →
- Test match
- International cricket's longest format: up to five days, two innings per side, no limit on overs per bowler. →
- Toss
- The coin toss before a match. The winning captain chooses to bat or bowl first. →
- Turning pitch
- A dry pitch on which spinners get significant turn, often more as a match goes on. →
V
- Vice-captain (fantasy)
- The player whose points get a smaller multiplier, usually 1.5×, in many fantasy formats. →
W
- Wicketkeeper
- The fielder behind the stumps. In fantasy, batting position usually matters more than catches. →
- Wide
- A delivery too far from the batter to hit with a normal stroke. One extra run and an extra ball.
- World Test Championship
- The ICC's league for Test cricket, played over two-year cycles and ending in a final. South Africa won the 2025 final. →
- Wrist spin
- Spin imparted mainly with the wrist: leg-spin and left-arm wrist spin. Often copes better with dew than finger spin. →
Y
- Yorker
- A full delivery aimed at the batter's feet or the base of the stumps; a key death-overs skill.