A wicket is a set of three wooden stakes topped by two small wooden pieces, used in the game of cricket. The stakes, called stumps, stand upright in the ground, and the small pieces balanced on top are called bails. Together they form a target about as tall as your knee. The bowler (similar to a pitcher in baseball) tries to knock the bails off by hitting the stumps with the ball, while the batter defends the wicket with a flat wooden bat.

In cricket, getting a batter “out” is called taking a wicket. A bowler might take five wickets in a match, meaning they got five batters out. Commentators announce scores like “England has lost three wickets,” meaning three of their batters are out. The word appears in the phrase sticky wicket, which originally meant damp ground that made batting difficult but now describes any tricky situation: “Forgetting your homework puts you on a sticky wicket with your teacher.”

Cricket is hugely popular in countries like England, India, Australia, and Pakistan, where kids grow up playing it in streets and parks just like American kids play baseball. The wicket is as central to cricket as home plate is to baseball.