A cricket match is played between two teams of eleven players. The winner is decided based on which team scored more runs. The team to bat first is decided by a coin toss. In limited overs cricket, both teams bat for one innings each. The team batting second chases and tries to usurp the number of runs hit by the team who batted first. In a test match that lasts for four or five days, both teams alternate their innings and the team who has hit more runs cumulatively wins the match.
The job of scoring runs for their side are assigned to the batters. The bowlers on the other hand try to restrict the batters from scoring runs by not allowing them to score or by getting them out. The latter event is called a dismissal. At a given time, two batters take to the pitch on either side. When one batter is out, the other follows. This batting order is determined by skill level of the batters. When six wickets have fallen, the tail of the batting order is exposed. The batters to follow are not as skilled as the ones who batted before them. This is because these incoming batters specialise in bowling.
The first six or seven players who come to bat thus have to score a bulk of their team’s total. Scores of each batter and runs conceded by the fielding side by bowling illegal deliveries (extras) add up to be the final total of the batting side. It is rare for each batter to contribute significantly to the total. But even a minimal contribution is better than not scoring anything for the team.
When a batter gets out without scoring a run, then he is said to be out on a ‘duck’. However, if a batter is out without facing a single ball, then the batter is out on a ‘diamond duck’. In some regions, if the batter is timed out, i.e., that they fail to reach the crease in the permitted time slot, then too they are said to be dismissed on a ‘diamond duck’.
There are only two possible ways (apart from timed out), when a batter can be out on a dimaond duck. The first instance is when the batter at the non-striker’s end is out of the crease and is run out. This usually happens when the batter on strike hits a ball straight at the bowler, who get a part of their body touched to the ball to deflect the ball at the stumps of the non-striker who is out of the crease.
A mankad is also a manner in which the non-striker can be run out. When a bowler is yet to release the ball and the non-striker is out of the crease, then the bowler can lawfully run out the batter. Apart from the mankad and the bowler’s deflection, a batter who is yet to face a ball can be run out conventionally by any fielder.
Another way of getting out on a diamond duck is when the bowler balls a wide ball and the wicket-keeper inflicts a stumping. If the batter is outside the crease, then they are out. Since it was an illegal delivery, it does not count to the ‘balls faced’ bracket of the batter and hence they are out on zero runs off zero balls.