Howzat! A cricket-to-baseball glossary

With ESPN about to start airing live games from the Indian Premier League, Al Jazeera America has taken the time to provide a concise cricket-to-baseball explainer to help confused American sports fan decipher some of the commentary.

wicket — Bits of woods sticking out of the ground at which a hard ball is thrown; alternatively, the pitch or state of the pitch; also, rather confusingly, the innings of a batsman.

Nearest baseball equivalent (NBE): Take your pick — catcher’s glove, the space between the mound and the batter, one at bat.

sticky wicket — A difficult pitch producing uneven bounce; a metaphor for a real-life situation fraught with difficulty.

NBE: Curve ball, as in “Sometimes life throws you a …”

Howzat? — Contraction of “How was that, umpire?” Usually screamed when fielding players believe a batsman is out or when they don’t think he is out but hope they can hoodwink the umpire into believing that he is.

NBE: “Open your eyes, blue!”

corridor of uncertainty — A somewhat notional area in which a ball occasionally disobeys the laws of physics, leaving the batsman at a loss as to what to do.

NBE: A pickle.

tea – Brownish liquid provided to players for refreshment; a 20-minute break in play to provide for such refreshment.

NBE: Performance enhancing drugs.

sledging — Verbal abuse, often profane or psychologically damaging, intended to intimidate a batsman. Delivered by opposing team members with the aim of reducing batsman to tears, mental breakdown or simply giving up his wicket to get away from it all.

NBE: Heckling.

googly, also wrong'un — Deceptive spin ball that breaks in the opposite direction of usual delivery.

NBE: A screwball.

chucker — An illegal bowler who throws the ball with a bent elbow.

NBE: Just your bog-standard pitcher, then.

pie chucker — A bowler whose deliveries are so poor that batsman can easily score (from the flight of the ball, resembling that of a pie being thrown in the air).

NBE: The Mets bullpen.

to walk — To take yourself out of the game when you know yourself to be out rather than wait for a decision from the umpire.

NBE: No such equivalent exists. Chivalry has never existed in the American game.

It’s not cricket — Phrase to imply something is unacceptable or just not done.

NBE: Baseball.

Al Jazeera