Pace --
(a) The speed of a bowler's delivery, as in medium-pace or, less often, slow or fast-paced bowling. (A slow or fast bowler is usually called just that).
(a) Fast bowling.
(c) High speed, as in 'the game was played at a tremendous pace.'

Pace bowler -- A bowler who bowls with pace, i.e., a fast bowler

Pad up --
(a) To put on protective equipment before going out to bat;
(b) To allow the ball to hit the pad, rather than attempt to hit it with the bat.

Pair -- A duck in each innings. A batsman coming in for his second innings after a duck in the first is said to be 'on a pair'.

Pajamas -- See Pyjamas.

Partnership -- The time spent at the wicket by one pair of batsmen and the runs scored (including extras) in that time. There are ten partnerships per completed innings, labeled from first-wicket partnership to tenth-wicket partnership, in order.

Pavilion -- The clubhouse of a cricket ground, where the players change, wait to bat and take their refreshments.

Penetration -- Generally, penetrative bowling is that which is likely to take wickets, rather than merely being difficult to score off. Of course, there's nothing quite like the moment of penetration, as the gleaming red weapon slips through the last line of defence.

Pinch-hitter -- A 'pinch hitter' is a big-hitting tail-ender, promoted to the top of the batting order to take advantage of field-placement restrictions in the first 15 overs of a 50-over one-day innings.

Pitch --
(a) The mown area, 22 yards long and ten feet wide, with the wickets and creases at either end.
(b) In hitting the ground on its way to the batsman, the ball is said to pitch; i.e. The point on the pitch at which the ball pitches!

Plank -- Typically an old or poor-quality bat that imparts more energy to the batsman than to the ball when hit.

Played on -- When the batsman plays the ball on to his own wicket he is said to have played on and is given out. Playing on is classed as being bowled, and the bowler takes credit for the dismissal.

Playing back -- When batting, to play a ball off the back foot, a good strategy against a short-pitched ball. See also Footwork.

Playing for his average -- Accusation levelled at a batsman who plays the role of the blocker when his team needs quick runs.

Playing forward -- When batting, to play a ball off the front foot, a good strategy against an overpitched ball. See also Footwork.

Point -- Fielding position square of wicket on off side.

Popping crease -- A transverse line four feet in front of the bowling crease. The batsman must ground his bat or body behind this line in order to complete a run or to avoid being stumped by the wicketkeeper. As he releases the ball, the bowler must keep some part of his front foot behind the popping crease if he is not to bowl a no-ball.

Protective equipment -- Minimal batting equipment consists of pads for the shins and knees, a strap-on foam pad for the leading thigh, a box and a pair of gloves and a bat. Other batsmen may variously add a second thigh pad, foam pads for the leading forearm and chest and - universally in modern Test cricket - a helmet, usually with a metal grille in front of the face.

Pull, pull shot, pull stroke -- A cross-bat, usually back-foot batting shot, directed into the sector between mid-on and square leg. The master of the shot was Sir Don Bradman, who had to develop this shot when as a young boy he was playing against grown men on matting and, being short anyway, found the ball getting too high to cope with. Bradman describes two kinds of pull:

a) The back foot is taken back and across, toes pointing down the pitch... pull it hard to mid-wicket rolling the wrists over to keep the ball on the ground... finish facing square leg.

b) Secondly, put the right foot straight back... pull your body away from the line of flight as the left foot is swung round to leg... tremendous power... sometimes I found myself behing the left stump with my left leg. (Bradman, 60-1).
Bradman is sometimes seen with a dropped left shoulder in this shot, a further aid in keeping the ball down.

Pull-drive -- A drive off the front foot, which is not quite to the pitch of the ball, allowing the bat to hit across the line, thus taking the ball from, say, outside the off stump and hitting it past mid-on.

Punch -- A forcing stroke, mainly from the back foot.

Push him! -- Batsman's call to his partner, urging him to run the first run quickly in the hope of inducing a mistake from the fielder, and thus turning one run into two.

Pyjamas -- Derogatory term for the coloured clothing worn in certain forms of one-day cricket.