front foot

Definitions

Cricket

  • adjective
    (written as front-foot)
    played, or tending to play, off the front foot
    Citation ‘Already the ball was coming through sluggishly, which did not suit Gooch’s front foot game’ (Berry 1982)
    Citation ‘Years ago each team had a genuine swing bowler and the great craft is to pitch the ball up, which induces the front foot drive, one of the game’s aesthetic shots and that brings the slips into play’ (Geoffrey Boycott, Colin Cowdrey Lecture, 19 July 2005)
  • noun the foot that is further from the stumps when a batsman is standing at the crease; the left foot in the case of a right-handed batsman or the right foot in the case of a left-handed batsman. A ‘forward’ stroke, in which this foot is advanced down the wicket towards the pitch of the ball and carries most of the batsman’s weight, is said to be played ‘off the front foot’.
    Citation ‘Most great batsmen have been ready and able to play off the front and the back foot with equal facility’ (MCC 1952)
    Citation ‘One of the faults I picked up in England was because I started playing everything on the front foot. But then all batsmen tend to get that way in England where you have to counter the movement by going forward’ (Mohammed Azharuddin, Sportstar [Chennai] 7 May 1994)
    Citation ‘An interesting discussion on batting in English conditions ensued, with Richards holding forth on the merits of getting on the front foot’ (Rajan Bala, Cricinfo Magazine May 2006)
    See also forward Compare back foot
http://www.dictionarycentral.com/definition/front-foot.html