the.com/wicket
Three sticks defended like a kingdom while strangers hurl a leather rock at your shins.
means A wicket is the set of three upright stumps (topped by two bails) that a batsman defends in cricket, with the term extended to mean a small gate or door, or a ticket-window opening.
from From Anglo-Norman 'wiket' and Old French 'wiquet,' meaning a small door or gate — possibly with roots in a Norse word for 'to give way' or 'turn,' as a wicket is a little gate that swings. English took it first as that small door set within or beside a larger one, then the cricketers borrowed it for their little gate of stumps that a bowler tries to swing open.
- the bits
- Two bails balance atop three wooden stumps
- naming
- Same word means the target and a batsman's dismissal
- sticky wicket
- Tricky pitch birthed a phrase for any tough spot
- small door
- Originally a tiny gate, hence cricket's narrow gap
- toughest
- A perfect ten-wicket innings happened just three times
old trafford ground — manchester cricket ground where 188 test matches have been played since 1884
lord's cricket ground — london's historic venue where the mcc controls the laws of cricket and hosts the ashes
mcg melbourne — australian cricket ground where the boxing day test is played annually