What is a wicket, out, over and duck in cricket? What to know for the 2024 T20 World Cup

The United States is all set to host its first-ever International Cricket Council tournament, the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup. Matches will be played at three venues across the country including New York, Dallas and Lauderhill, Florida.

Twenty teams will be descending upon the U.S. and the West Indies for a thrilling tournament of 55 matches from June 1 to 29.

The T20 format of cricket is one of the shorter forms of the sport, with each game lasting approximately 3 hours and 20 minutes, on average, as per the ICC.

If you're a newbie or looking to brush up on your cricket knowledge, here's a look at some commonly used terms that will help you become familiar.

Cricket: Learn the game

Runs

Runs are the number of times the two playing batsmen run between the stumps. They are the defining part of the game as they decide the score for each match.

Toss

Before the game begins, a toss is conducted between the captains, and the team that wins the toss gets to decide whether they want to bat first or field first.

Over

When a bowler delivers a ball from one end of the pitch to the batsman at the other end six times, it is called an "over."

Each over has 6 deliveries or balls. The T20 cricket format has 20 overs which means 120 balls or deliveries by the fielding team.

Out

A batsman "gets out" when a bowler either hits the stumps behind him or if a fielder catches the ball before it hits the ground. In simple terms, out is when a playing batsman is dismissed.

Wicket

In the game of cricket, a wicket is the trio of stumps and two bails behind the batsmen. The cricket pitch has two wickets at opposite ends of the pitch during the game, with two batsmen on the field at the same time during play, one at each wicket.

The term is also used when a batsman is dismissed by a bowler or fielder, who hits the stump with the ball.

Six

A team scores a six when the ball lands outside the boundary of the ground without bouncing inside.

Four

A team scores four points when the ball crosses the boundary bouncing at least once inside the boundary.

Century

A century is when a batsman completes 100 runs without getting out.

A half century is scored when a batsman completes 50 runs without getting out.

Duck

A duck is when a batsman is dismissed without scoring any runs.

Run rate

The run rate is the average number of runs scored per over and is used to guide and predict the team's progress.

Dead ball

A dead ball is one from which no wickets can be taken and runs cannot be scored.

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X @saman_shafiq7.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is an out, over, wicket and duck in cricket? Defining key terms