Hack:

A batter with low skill, an aggressive approach, preference for lofted cross bat shots, poor defensive stance, and lack of defensive strokes. Also used for a specific stroke fitting this description.

Half Century:

An individual score of 50 runs or more but less than 100. Significant landmark for a batter, especially for lower-order and tail-enders.

Half-Tracker:

Another term for a long hop; the ball bounces roughly halfway down the pitch.

Half-Volley:

A delivery bouncing just short of the batter, allowing them to easily strike it with an attacking front foot shot like a drive or glance.

Handled the Ball:

When a batter touches the ball with their hands (not gripping the bat) while the ball is still live. No longer a dismissal method but can result in the batter being given out.

Harrow Drive:

See French cut.

Hat-Trick:

Bowler taking a wicket off each of three consecutive deliveries in a single match. Can be in the same over, split over two consecutive overs, two overs in different spells, or even spread across two innings of a Test or first-class cricket match.

Hat-Trick Ball:

Delivery bowled after taking two wickets with the previous two deliveries. The bowler is on a hat-trick before delivering the hat-trick ball.

Hawk-Eye:

See ball tracking.

Heavy Roller:

A very heavy cylinder of metal used by ground staff to improve a wicket for batting.

Helicopter Shot:

Batting shot flicking the ball through the air on the leg side, often to avoid close fielders and hit a boundary. Requires timing and is more refined than slogs or hoicks.

Helmet:

Protective headgear worn by batters facing pace bowling or fielders located very close to the batter. Consists of a hard padded hemisphere protecting the brain case, a front brim, and a metal grill over the face and jaw.

High Score:

The most runs scored by a batter in a single innings.

Hip Clip:

A trademark shot of Brian Lara involving a flick of the wrist to whip a ball, at hip height, at right angles past the fielder at square leg.

Hit the Ball Twice:

Batter is out ‘hit the ball twice’ if they strike the ball a second time with their person or bat (but not a hand holding the bat) after the first strike. Not out if the second strike was to guard their wicket.

Hit Wicket:

Batter getting out by dislodging the bails of the wicket behind them with their bat or body while trying to play the ball or set off for a run.

Hoick:

An unrefined shot is played to the leg side, often across the line of the ball.

Hold up an End:

Intentionally restricting scoring and concentrating on defense while the batting partner scores runs at the other end. Can also refer to a bowler bowling defensively to restrict runs while their partner tries to take wickets at the other end.

Hole Out:

To be dismissed by being caught, usually referring to a lofted shot caught in the outfield or forward from the wicket.

Hoodoo:

Bowlers are said to ‘have the hoodoo’ on a batter when they have got them out many times in their career.

Hook:

Shot plays similar to a pull, but the ball is struck when it is above the batter’s shoulder.

Hoop:

A particularly large amount of swing.

Hot Spot:

Technology is used in TV coverage to evaluate snicks and bat-pad catches. Batter is filmed with an infrared camera; friction from the ball strike shows up as a white “hot spot.”

Howzat or How’s That?:

See appeal.

Hundred:

See century.

100-ball cricket, a limited-overs format with modified rules, each team batting for up to 100 legal balls.

The Hundred, a domestic competition in England that uses the 100-ball format, introduced in 2021.

Hutch:

The pavilion or dressing room; non-specialist batters or tailenders can be known as ‘rabbits’, so when they are given out, they return to the hutch.