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Area demarcated by white lines painted or chalked on the field of play

In the sport of cricket, the crease is a certain area demarcated by white lines painted or chalked on the field of play, and pursuant to the rules of cricket they help determine legal play in different ways for the fielding and batting side. They define the area within which the batsmen and bowlers operate. The term crease may refer to any of the lines themselves, particularly the popping crease, or to the region that they demark. Law 7 of the Laws of Cricket governs the size and position of the crease markings, and defines the actual line as the back edge of the width of the marked line on the soil, i. e., the edge nearest to the wicket at that end. Four creases (one popping crease, one bowling crease, and two return creases) are drawn at each end of the pitch, around the two sets of stumps. The bowling creases lie 22 yards (66 feet or 20.12 m) apart, and mark the ends of the pitch. For the fielding side, the crease defines whether there is a no ball because the wicket keeper has moved in front of the wicket before he is permitted to do so. In addition, historically part of the bowler's back foot in the delivery stride was required to fall behind the bowling crease to avoid a delivery being a no ball. This rule was replaced by a requirement that the bowler's front foot in the delivery stride must land with some part of it behind the popping crease (see below).

The origin of creases is unsure but they were certainly in use by the beginning of the 18th century, being created by scratch marks, the popping crease being 46 inches in front of the wicket at each end of the pitch. In the course of time the scratches became cuts which were an inch deep and an inch wide. Such cuts were in use until the second half of the 19th century. Sometime during the early part of his career, Alfred Shaw suggested that the creases be made by lines of whitewash and this practice was gradually adopted during the 1870s.

The origin of the term "popping crease" is derived from the earlier feature of cricket pitches, the popping hole. One popping crease is drawn at each end of the pitch in front of each set of stumps. The popping crease is 4 feet (1 m) in front of and parallel to the bowling crease, and thus 58 feet (18 m) from the other popping crease. Although it is considered to have unlimited length (in other words, running across the entire field) the popping crease need only be marked to at least 6 feet (2 m) at right angles to, and on both sides of, the middle of the pitch. This has given rise to the term "the line belongs to the umpire." In addition, a no ball is called if the bowled ball bounces more than once before it reaches the popping crease of the striker, or if more than two non wicketkeeping fielders are behind that popping crease on the on side at the time of the delivery. There is no limit to how far a bowler may bowl behind the crease other than that he must be visible to the umpire sufficient for him to verify that the bowling is indeed legal.

For a batsman the popping crease – which can be referred to as the batting crease in the context of batting – determines whether they have been stumped or run out. This is described in Laws 29, 38, and 39 of the Laws of Cricket. For a run out, the wicket near the popping crease must be put down when the batsman is not within their ground behind the popping crease. A 2010 amendment to Law 29 clarified the circumstance where the wicket is put down while a batsman has become fully airborne after having first made his ground; the batsman is regarded to not be out of his ground. If the batsman facing the bowler (the striker) steps out of his ground to play the ball but misses and the wicket keeper takes the ball and puts down the wicket, then the striker is out stumped.