Meanings
- pluralplural onlyball gamesThe set of individual scores between 90 and 99, when a batsman may play badly due to feeling pressure to convert the score into a century.
I have never found anything particularly significant in the term nervous nineties for I firmly believe that a batsman should treat every ball on its merits, be his score 9 or 90.
2011, Michael Vaughan, Year In The Sun1 more example
Watson nearly fell again in the nervous nineties when Bresnan took an overhead catch at long off when the all-rounder was on 90 but the fieldsman tumbled over the rope and a six was declared.
2013, Chris Barrett, “Shane Watson belts brutal century as George Bailey sets record against James Anderson”, in The Sydney Morning Herald
Cite this entry
nervous nineties. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nervous%20nineties
“nervous nineties.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nervous%20nineties. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “nervous nineties,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nervous%20nineties.
Source: nervous nineties on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.