About 50 before I'm bowled -- making progress (5)
I believe the answer is:
climb
'progress' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'about 50 before i'm bowled' is the wordplay.
'about 50' becomes 'cl' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'bowled' becomes 'b' (cricket abbreviation).
'cl'+'im'+'b'='CLIMB'
'making' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for climb that I've seen before include "Move upwards, ascend" , "showing the way up" , "Ascend - ascent" , "What mountaineer does" , "Use hands and feet to rise" .)