What Is a Pair in Cricket?
What a 'pair' means in cricket, when it occurs, and why scoring a duck in both innings is considered one of the game's most embarrassing results for a batter.
What Is a Pair?
A 'pair' in cricket occurs when a batter is dismissed for a duck (zero) in both innings of the same match. In a Test or first-class match, each team bats twice, so a batter has two chances to score. Failing to score in both innings — making zero in the first innings and zero in the second — is called a pair, reflecting the 'pair of ducks' a batter has registered.
Why It Matters
A pair is considered one of the most embarrassing outcomes for a batter because it means they contributed nothing to the team's total across an entire Test match. Most batters who score ducks recover in the second innings — so scoring zero twice underlines a significant failure of technique or a particularly difficult bowling performance encountered.
A King Pair vs A Standard Pair
A standard pair means out for zero in both innings, in any manner. A 'king pair' is more specific — it requires being dismissed first ball (without facing a second delivery) in both innings. The king pair is rarer and even more celebrated as a cricketing misfortune, because the batter had no opportunity to settle on either occasion.
Notable Pairs
Even world-class batters have scored pairs — Shane Warne, Stuart Broad, and various lower-order batters have been dismissed for duck in both innings of a Test. When a top-order batter scores a pair, it is more significant, as they typically face more deliveries and are expected to contribute. Pairs from specialist bowlers (numbers 9–11) are far more common and less newsworthy.
Frequently asked questions
Does a pair affect a batter's average?
Yes — both zeros count as dismissals in the batting average calculation. Two innings, zero runs, two dismissals contributes 0/2 = 0 to the average for that match.
What is a golden duck?
A golden duck is being dismissed for zero on the very first ball faced. A golden pair would require golden ducks in both innings of a match.
Have any batters scored a pair in a World Cup final?
World Cup finals are single-innings affairs, so the pair concept doesn't apply to World Cup matches — only to multi-innings formats like Tests and first-class games.