The title, “Out for a Golden Duck,” is a cricket term for when the batter is dismissed on the first bowl (pitch) without scoring even a single run. (Duck refers to “duck’s egg,” a slang term for 0.) The closest thing in baseball would be a sombrero (striking out three or more times in a game).

“And Heartstrings’ center stump goes down for a northern pintail.”

Thought it was something out of one of those comics. Nicely drawn.

GOT HIM! YES! FUCK OFF, YOU’RE OUT!

Equestrian Ashes needs to be a thing. Like…now!

@Muffinshire  
I see we have a cricket fan here!  
You should totally add some cricket reference in Twilight’s first day :P

@Muffinshire  
Oh, okay. Thanks!

@Deadpan  
The basic game is pretty straightforward, and it’s vaguely similar to baseball and related bat-and-ball sports. Two teams (usually 11 people each) compete to see how many “runs” they can earn, with one team batting and the other fielding. The batting team has two batsmen in play, each guarding a wicket (three wooden stumps topped by two bails, one at each end of a 22 yard long rectangular pitch).
 
A bowler on the fielding team bowls the ball at one of the batsmen in an attempt to hit the wicket; the batsmen has to hit the ball away to protect it. After hitting the ball, the two batsmen can then run back and forth between the two wickets to earn runs, while the fielding team attempts to return the ball and strike one of the wickets while the batsmen are mid-run. Batsmen also earn “bonus” runs if they hit the ball outside the field boundary (six if the ball doesn’t touch the ground, four if it bounces or rolls on the way). The fielding team attempts to knock out the batsman by hitting the wicket with the ball, or by catching the ball after it’s been hit but before it touches the ground (there are other ways a batsman can be dismissed, but I won’t go into those).
 
The innings usually ends when 10 of the 11 batsmen have been knocked out, or when a pre-set number of “overs” (rounds of six balls) has been played. The teams then swap roles.
 
A lot of the perception that cricket is impenetrable comes from the fact that it has loads of strange jargon terms and a bunch of finicky little rules tacked on to discourage cheating or dangerous play, but the basic game is easy enough to understand. It’s sometimes seen as very slow and boring, but that perception comes largely from test cricket, where matches can last for several days because an innings only ends when 10 of the 11 batsmen are out (and each team gets to bat twice). Limited overs cricket, where an innings is limited typically to between 20 and 50 overs (120 - 300 balls), is a shorter and faster game, and many international competitions (including the Cricket World Cup) use this format.

@Muffinshire  
You wouldn’t mind giving me the full rundown on how cricket works, would you?

@Background Pony  
Cricket, old boy!
 
“Howzat?” (“How’s that?”) is usually called out when a batsman is bowled or caught out. It’s meant to be a call to the umpire to signal if the out is valid, but it’s also used a cry of triumph by the fielding team.

what??