WICKETS AND BAILS

Instead of a home plate to designate the strike zone, cricket has THREE STUMPS, or WICKETS, planted behind the batter. On top of the sticks, two pieces of wood called BAILS are placed as shown in the diagram. The idea is that if the wickets are touched by a ball, one or both the bails will fall to the ground.so there will be no arguments about whether the sticks were hit or not. The batter has to stop the pitcher from touching any of the sticks with a direct throw.if the sticks are hit, the batter is out (like a strike). TAGS, or RUN OUTS as they are called in cricket, are also made by touching the wickets before the runner can reach safe ground near the sticks...and again, the bails are used to decide for sure whether and when the sticks have been hit.