Wicket

one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of a cricket pitch, guarded by a batsman who, with his bat, attempts to prevent the ball from hitting the wicket; named after "wicket gate", a small gate, which it historically resembled

In cricket, a wicket is:

  • An object made up of three sticks (called stumps) stuck into the earth, with two small sticks (called bails) balanced on them. They are like a target for the fielding team, and can be hit with the ball to try to get batsmen out.
  • A batter getting out, meaning they can't bat anymore. A team that has "lost 5 wickets" has had 5 of its batters get out.
  • The cricket pitch itself.

Object

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There is one wicket in each of the two batsmen's grounds. The fielding team can hit a wicket with the ball to run out a batsman, but only if there is no batsman in the ground of the wicket.[1] In addition, when delivering the ball to the batsman, the bowler can hit the wicket in the striker's ground with the ball to bowl the striker out.[2]

The wicket is said to have been "put down" when any of its 5 sticks fall to the ground because it was hit by the ball or a player holding the ball.[3] The sticks can be put back in place and then hit back off to put the wicket down more than once.

Sides of the field

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The field can be defined as having two halves: the "off side" and the "leg side"/"on side", with these being separated by an imaginary line connecting the middle stump of both wickets. The off side of the field is the right side of a field for a right-handed batsman who is looking at the bowler, and the leg side is the left side. (This is reversed for a left-handed batsman.)[4]

Batsman getting out

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A batsman is said to have "lost his wicket" when he gets out.[5]

References

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  1. "{% DocumentName %} Law | MCC". www.lords.org. Retrieved 2020-10-31.
  2. "{% DocumentName %} Law | MCC". www.lords.org. Retrieved 2020-10-31.
  3. "{% DocumentName %} Law | MCC". www.lords.org. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  4. https://www.lords.org/getattachment/MCC/All-Laws/2nd-Edition-of-the-2017-code-2019.pdf The diagram on P.80
  5. "Ten ways of getting out". 2005-09-06. Retrieved 2020-10-31.