In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings:It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batter out. The wicket is guarded by a batter who, with their bat, attempts to prevent the ball from hitting the wicket and to score runs where possible. Through metonymic usage, the dismissal of a batter is known as the taking of a wicket, The cricket pitch itself is sometimes referred to as the wicket.

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game that is played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a 22-yard (20-metre) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. Two players from the batting team stand in front of either wicket, with one player from the fielding team bowling the ball towards the striker's wicket from the opposite end of the pitch. The striker's goal is to hit the bowled ball and then switch places with the nonstriker, with the batting team scoring one run for each exchange. Runs are also scored when the ball reaches or crosses the boundary of the field or when the ball is bowled illegally.