hi everybody and welcome back to love English I'm Sabrah and I'm a British
University English teacher so it is of course cricket season and this year the
World Cup is in England I'm sure lots of you are watching as I know we've got
lots of followers from India, Pakistan so I'm sure lots of you out there are
watching now you probably know that cricket actually originated in the UK we
started playing cricket in the UK in about the 18th century so we invented it
and it has in fact influenced a lot of our vocabulary there are many idiomatic
expressions that come from cricket so today we're going to look at ten of
these idioms that all originally come from cricket and these idioms are really
common in everyday British conversation in fact before I became a
cricket fan I used to say these idioms without knowing what they actually meant
in cricket so they're super common so even if you're not a cricket fan these
are going to be so useful as we use them all the time in everyday British
conversation let's go everybody 10 idioms that all originated from the
wonderful British game of cricket if you haven't already guys then make sure that
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well okay so idiom number one is to have a good innings if you know cricket then
you will know that your innings is the time that you play for so your 50 overs
but when we use this idiom in daily conversation we mean that somebody has
had a good life a full life we might often say it when somebody has actually
passed away or an animal has passed away if they've lived a long life and they've
had a full life we might say it's very sad but they had a good innings meaning
they had a good time they enjoyed their time just like we would in cricket say
if somebody has played well that they had a good innings so an example
sentence would be I was really sad when my grandfather passed away
but he was 95 so he'd had a very good innings number two is the phrase be
cricket which means to be fair and just about something
now cricket is a very civilized game it's always being considered a
gentleman's game as it did originate amongst the upper classes therefore when
we say something is cricket we will say it is fair we often use this in the
negative so if we say well that's not cricket
this means that something isn't fair something about that situation is not
fair an example sentence would be it was really not cricket how she got fired at
the last minute like that I can't believe management would behave like
that number three is to hit or to knock someone for six this is certainly a
phrase that I use very often so to hit or to knock someone for six you cricket
fans out there will know that six is the highest score and so the opposing team
are going to be very shocked if the batsman hits a six so this is literally
what it means the idiom means to be very shocked by something to be overwhelmed
by it, if we say that really knocked me for six it's something really surprising
really shocking it's more used in a negative way so when we receive negative
information or something negative happens to us that we find very shocking
we might say oh it really knocked me for six now an example sentence would be
when Leila told me she was leaving love English it knocked me for six don't
worry guys Leila is not leaving just an example before you guys start to have a
heart attack about that she's not leaving but of course if she did say
that it would really knock me for six so great example there number four is to be
bowled over of course in cricket this means that the bowler has bowled the
batsman something that he can't get so he's bowled over perhaps even fallen
over or lost his footing so how we use this in everyday conversation it's again
it's something that has really shocked us this can also be a positive thing it
can be positive or negative we can say I was bowled over by my pay rise I really
didn't expect it you know I was so surprised by that so again it's
something that is surprising or shocking but it's probably used a little bit more
in the positive actually than to knock someone for six number five is to be on
a sticky wicket on a sticky wicket of course a wicket is when you are knocked
out of the game so many ways you can be knocked out but basically the batsman is
out that's what a wicket is in cricket so if we say we are on a sticky wicket
it means we're in an uncertain awkward or dangerous situation the perfect word
would probably be to say you're in a precarious situation a situation that
involves risk so if you're in a situation where potentially you could
lose your job you don't have a proper contract and you're feeling very
insecure you could say I'm on a sticky wicket here you know I don't feel like
I'm in a safe situation I've certainly used this phrase many many times it
sounds very quintessentially English so it's a great one to use to be on a
sticky wicket to be in an awkward or insecure situation the next one is to be
stumped to be stumped which in cricket is one of the ways which you are caught
out so one of the ways that a batsman is out now to be stumped really means to be
surprised to have no idea how to solve the problem if we say I'm stumped on
that one we mean I've got no idea how to fix this or I'm confused about how to go
forward I'm stumped so if you find yourself in a situation where you feel
confused and you don't know what to do you can say I'm really stumped on this
one or just hmm you've got me stumped an example
sentence would be many students feel quite stumped when it comes to the third
conditional number seven is to do something off your own bat to do
something off your own bat meaning to do something that you want to do nobody is
pushing you to do this you do it out of your own desire so to do it off your own
bat nobody has pushed you into this you do it because you want to so an example
sentence would be Leila went to the gym off her own bat for once her boyfriend
didn't have to push her into going eight is to catch
someone out of course this is one of the ways that a batsman is out that you can
get a wicket so if you catch someone out the idiom actually means that you
find them out on something so it's really when you find that someone has
done something wrong or made a mistake so for example if a girl thinks her
boyfriend is cheating on her but he says no I'm not not cheating or it could be
vice versa but a guy thinks a girl is cheating but then actually a friend sees
him or her with another girl or boy kissing them and takes a photo so there
you would be able to say you've been caught out you said you weren't cheating
but look at this photo so there that would be to catch someone out so to find that
they're doing something wrong or they've made a mistake number nine is to throw
someone a googly the equivalent in American sports and in American English
would be to throw a curveball now in cricket this means when a bowler throws
a ball which spins in the opposite direction to what the batsman expects so
he is surprised so when we say to throw someone a googly we present someone with
information or a situation which is surprising for them they are taken aback
by this or even discombobulated and you would know the meaning of that guys if
you've watched my 12 beautiful English words which is up there so basically you
present them with information that is surprising or confusing so an example
sentence would be Dave really threw Jane a googly when he said that he wanted to
go on a date with her Dave really threw Jane and googly when he said that he
wanted to go on a date with her so number 10 the last one is to be on the
backfoot now to be on the backfoot means to be in
a weaker position or to start off in a weaker position or somehow you're pushed
into a weaker position for example in cricket if a batsman steps forward to
hit the ball usually he's in a stronger position he's on his front foot but if
he has to step backward onto his back foot it's harder for him to hit the ball
well so he's on his back foot meaning in a weaker position so if we say oh he's
on the back foot in that one it means he's
in a weaker position or he's got off to a bad start
perhaps so a good example sentence and we'll use this to talk about another
sport could be Liverpool's early goal put Manchester on the back foot and if we
looked at it in the context of cricket we might say England's high run rate put
Australia on the back foot so there we go guys ten fantastic common everyday
British idioms that we use that all come from a cricket if your country is in the
World Cup then I really hope that you do well best of luck to you of course
I'm supporting England enjoy cricket season everybody and if you'd like to
try and use any of these idioms in a sentence below I've also provided a link
to test your cricket vocabulary knowledge which is on the English club
website and it's a quiz so you can try that out guys and please leave me your
score in the comments below enjoy everybody and we'll see you soon
on love English bye-bye