Like cricket team in WW2 alliance? (4)
I believe the answer is:
axis
'alliance?' is the definition.
(alliance between two countries)
'like cricket team in' is the wordplay.
'like' becomes 'as'.
'cricket team' becomes 'XI' (a cricket team, from Roman numerals for 11).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'as' placed around 'xi' is 'AXIS'.
'ww2' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for axis that I've seen before include "One of very elliptical orbit" , "Imaginary line about which a body rotates and a Dublin theatre" , "(Rotational?) alliance of powers" , "Imaginary line through the centre of an object on which it spins" , "On which a body spins" .)