Talk of a century by a bowler? (4)
I believe the answer is:
chat
'talk' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a century by a bowler?' is the wordplay.
'a century' becomes 'c' (common abbreviation).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a bowler?' becomes 'hat' (bowler is a kind of hat).
'c'+'hat'='CHAT'
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for chat that I've seen before include "Chinwag" , "gas" , "flier" , "An inconsequential and informal talk" , "Casual conversation" .)