nervous nineties

Noun

 * 1)  The 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.
 * 2) * 2011, Michael Vaughan, Year In The Sun:
 * 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.