Cricket Acronyms: Understanding the Key Terms and Abbreviations in the Sport

Cricket is a two-team sport with each team having eleven players. An official cricket match can go on for an afternoon or several days. Despite having extremely different regulations and game action, baseball and cricket have the same fundamental idea. As the opposing team fields and tries to finish the batting team’s innings, teams bat in subsequent innings in an effort to score runs. The team with the most runs wins after each team has batted an equal number of innings (either one or two, depending on the rules decided upon prior to the game).

In this article, we will take a look at the most commonly used acronyms in the sport of cricket.

Acronyms used to denote the Types of Dismissal

ct or c caught
b bowled
ct and b or c and b caught and bowled (by the same member of the fielding side); the abbreviations + and & are often substituted for “and”
ro run out
st stumped
lbw leg before wicket
ht wkt hit wicket

Acronyms used to denote the types of bowlers

RF right armed fast
LF left armed fast
RFM right-armed fast-medium
LFM left armed fast-medium
RM right armed medium
LM left armed medium
OB right-armed finger spinner
LB right armed wrist spinner
SLA left-armed finger spinner (sla = slow left arm)
CH / SLC left-armed wrist spinner (ch = chinaman)

Acronyms used to denote the types of batsmen

ROP right-handed opener
LOP left-handed opener
RMD right-handed middle order batsman
LMD left-handed middle order batsman

Acronyms used for bowling stats

MP / PL / MAT matches played
IP innings played
O overs bowled
B byes or balls bowled
LB leg byes
M maiden overs bowled
W wickets taken
R runs allowed
E economy (runs plus extras allowed per over)
AV average (runs allowed per wicket taken)
SR strike rate (balls bowled per wicket taken)
WD wide balls
NB no balls
5W number of times this bowler has taken five wickets in an innings
10W number of times this bowler has taken ten wickets in a match (over both innings of a test)
BB’s best bowling is noted in terms of the number of wickets taken and number of runs allowed, ie 5 / 40 five wickets for forty runs allowed
BBI’s best bowling in an innings
BBM’s best bowling in a match (over both innings of a test)

Acronyms used for batting stats

MP / PL / MAT matches played
IP innings played
R runs scored
B / BF balls faced
AV / AVE average (runs made per wicket)
AVI average runs per innings
SR strike rate (runs made per 100 balls)
RR run rate (runs + extras accumulated per over in the course of an innings; ie total runs divided by overs bowled)
SS scoring shots (number of shots from a batsman which yielded runs)
NO times not out
HS high score
* [asterisk] applied to a score to indicate an innings total made not out, ie 134* = 134 not out
B4 boundary fours
B6 boundary sixes
100 centuries scored
50 fifties scored (including centuries, ie every inning total of fifty or greater)