What is a golden duck in cricket?

In cricket, a score of zero is called a duck. While getting dismissed for a duck is one of the most ignominious feats on the pitch, being dismissed on the very first ball without a score against one’s name is even more embarrassing.

What is golden duck?

Imagine you go out to bat with your team in desperate need of a big innings, but you return to the pavilion after facing just one delivery and not adding a single run to the team’s total. This rare occurrence is called a ‘golden duck’ in cricket terminology. If a batter is dismissed on the very first ball he faces, without scoring a run, he's said to be dismissed on a 'golden duck'.

The term "duck" is a shortened version of "duck's egg", a phrase that was in use even before the advent of Test cricket. One of its earliest recorded uses was on 17 July 1866, when a newspaper reported that the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) had returned to the pavilion for a score of zero, calling it a "duck's egg".

The history of duck in cricket

The expression is believed to have originated as the number 0 closely resembles the shape of a duck's egg. The first-ever duck in international cricket was registered during the inaugural Test between Australia and England in Melbourne in March 1877, when Australia's Ned Gregory was dismissed by James Lillywhite without scoring.

The most significant duck in the history of cricket was scored by legendary Australia batter Don Bradman, when he was dismissed for zero playing his last Test match at the Oval against England in 1948.

Who has scored most ducks?

Bradman needed just four runs to finish his Test career with an average of 100, but his dismissal on a duck meant that he finished with an average of 99.94, a historic number in the folklore of Test cricket.

Legendary Sri Lankan spinner Muthiah Muralidaran holds the record for most ducks scored in international cricket, being dismissed without a score against his name 59 times out of 328 innings.