alt Hacker News> Instead of 3 outs there's 10 outs (called wickets).
> An out is having a ball caught after you hit it (same as baseball) or the ball hitting the wickets when at bat (kind of like strikeout)
I thought a wicket is what you call an out? Now it’s something else, too?
(This kind of thing is why being a baseball fan having cricket explained at you by a Brit feels exactly the same as listening to people play mornington crescent)
Replies
> I thought a wicket is what you call an out? Now it’s something else, too?
It's a metonym.
The actual wicket is the wooden things the bowler is trying to hit. Because hitting the wicket eliminates the batter, the word is also used colloquially to refer to an out.
A wicket is a physical wooden structure. To take a wicket means to physically hit the wicket with a ball causing the batter to be out.
A wicket has the same function as a catcher in baseball.
The wickets are the physical sticks behind the batter. Someone is out when you "take their wicket". But yes, the player is then out of that inning.
The jargon is annoying but it's a lot like baseball.
Yes. Actually "wicket" is used for 3 different things.
Behind the batter, between the batter and the catcher are 3 vertical sticks. This is called the wicket. The batter is protecting those sticks, the bowler is trying to hit them.
If the bowler succeeds he has "got a wicket" and the batter has "lost his wicket." These 2 terms are used though regardless of the actual manner of the out.
To make things more confusing, the strip of land between the bowler and the batter is also called "the wicket". (Its slso called the "pitch", but I digress.) And this is a really important part of the game..
In baseball the ball is thrown at the batter, but in the air, not touching the ground (ie not bouncing.)
In cricket the ball may bounce before it gets to the batter. Indeed it almost always does. (A ball that doesn't bounce is usually easier to dispatch.)
Since the ball bounces, what it bounces off becomes really important. The hardness, amount of grass, smoothness, cracks and so on all become elements of the game, and all are different at each game.
The "art" of cricket is the way the bowler can manipulate the ball to not just move through the air (like in baseball) but also move off the pitch (aka the wicket). This movement is the key. Without it the game is dull - it becomes too easy for the batter.
If the pitch moves the ball too easily, it can become too hard for the batter, and the game can end up being too short (and dull in a different way.)
A "good" pitch thus balances the skills of the bowler with the skills of the batter. Creating a good pitch is art, not science though.