Wickets, Innings, Creases: Learn The Language Of Cricket

Every sport has its own language. That can make the game seem unnecessarily complicated and unapproachable. But once you learn a few terms, you can start getting your head around the game. So for that reason, we’re here to teach you a few key bits of cricket lingo so you can get to grips with the sport. Once you’ve learned the basics, it’s easy to fall in love with the game.

Pitch

Let’s start with an easy one. Cricket matches are played on a pitch. They’re 20 metres (aka 20 yards) long.

Wicket

Each cricket pitch has two wickets. Knocking over wickets is a major part of the game, so they are crucial to cricket. To the untrained eye, they look like a boxy m-shape. But when you look closely, you’ll see that they are made of up…

Stumps

Stumps are essentially the legs of the wicket. Every wicket has three stumps.

Bails

Balanced on top of your three stumps, you’ve got two bails on either side. And these stumps and bails make up your wicket.

Runs

Scores in cricket are known as runs. This is pretty literal because the aim of the batting side is to bat the ball and then run from one wicket to another. If you hit the ball beyond the field, you get four to six runs, depending on if your ball bounces or not.

Bowled

When the ball knocks down the bails on the wicket, it’s called being bowled. And that’s one of the major ways a batter can be dismissed from the field.

Crease

You can see several white lines on every cricket pitch and these show the areas that the batters and bowlers operate in. Each one is called a crease.

Innings

Every cricket match is divided into several innings. An inning is when one of the teams takes its turn to bat and the other one bowls. Each side has two innings.

Umpire

The umpire in a cricket match is basically the impartial decision maker of the game. They make the calls and the decisions, along with making sure everyone follows the rules. Each game has two main umpires  and a third umpire to assist.

Referee

If you read the description of what an umpire is, it might strike you as a lot like a referee in other sports. However, cricket has both umpires and referees. The referee’s role in cricket is to oversee Test matches and One Day Internationals. The International Cricket Council appoints these sports professionals. However, most matches just leave it to the umpires and don’t have a referee.

Wagers

Okay, well this isn’t really a cricket term, but if you’re looking for somewhere to place a few cricket wagers, we know of a good spot. We’d recommend bet365. If you’re looking for a range of cricket markets and strong odds, it’s the place to go. Plus, if you’re new to the site, you can also take advantage of this whopper bet365 bonus code. And if that isn’t a good reason to join, we’re not sure what is.