Duck in Cricket: Golden, Diamond, Royal & Every Type Explained
No batter walks out hoping for a duck, and no scoreboard is crueler than a lone “0” next to a name. The term comes from “duck’s egg,” a nod to how the number looks, and cricket has built an entire vocabulary around the different ways a player can suffer one.
Types of duck
| Type | Definition |
|---|---|
| Duck | Out for 0 (any number of balls faced) |
| Golden duck | Out on the first ball faced, for 0 |
| Silver duck | Out for 0 on the second ball faced |
| Bronze duck | Out for 0 on the third ball faced |
| Diamond duck | Out for 0 without facing a legal delivery (e.g. run out at the non-striker’s end, or out off a wide) |
| Royal / platinum duck | Out on the first ball of the team’s innings (the opener, first ball of the match) |
| Pair | Out for 0 in both innings of a match |
| King pair | A golden duck in both innings of a match |
Golden vs diamond — the common mix-up
People mix these two up constantly:
- A golden duck means the batter actually faced a ball and got out to it.
- A diamond duck means he never faced a legal delivery at all, most often a run-out backing up at the non-striker’s end, or a dismissal off a wide, which doesn’t count as a ball faced.
Why ducks matter
A duck is often the first visible sign of a top-order collapse, and cricket fans have kept score of the rarer varieties for decades as a kind of running trivia. A king pair especially: golden duck in both innings of the same match, is about as painful an entry as a batter can pick up.
Frequently asked questions
What is a golden duck?+
A golden duck is when a batter is out on the very first ball they face, scoring zero.
What is the difference between a diamond duck and a golden duck?+
A golden duck means out first ball faced. A diamond duck means dismissed without facing a legal delivery at all — typically run out at the non-striker's end or off a wide.
What is a king pair?+
A king pair is when a batter is out for a golden duck (first ball) in both innings of the same match.
Sources
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