Cricket pitch in the context of "Leg side"

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; 66-foot) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails (small sticks) balanced on three stumps. Two players from the batting team, the striker and nonstriker, stand in front of either wicket holding bats, while one player from the fielding team, the bowler, bowls the ball toward the striker's wicket from the opposite end of the pitch. The striker's goal is to hit the bowled ball with the bat and then switch places with the nonstriker, with the batting team scoring one run for each of these swaps. Runs are also scored when the ball reaches the boundary of the field or when the ball is bowled illegally.

The fielding team aims to prevent runs by dismissing batters (so they are "out"). Dismissal can occur in various ways, including being bowled (when the ball hits the striker's wicket and dislodges the bails), and by the fielding side either catching the ball after it is hit by the bat but before it hits the ground, or hitting a wicket with the ball before a batter can cross the crease line in front of the wicket. When ten batters have been dismissed, the innings (playing phase) ends and the teams swap roles. Forms of cricket range from traditional Test matches played over five days to the newer Twenty20 format (also known as T20), in which each team bats for a single innings of 20 overs (each "over" being a set of 6 fair opportunities for the batting team to score) and the game generally lasts three to four hours.

In the sport of cricket, the term wicket has several meanings:

• It is either of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at each 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 (and sometimes with their pads, but see the laws on LBW, leg before wicket), attempts to prevent the ball from hitting the wicket (if it does, they may be bowled) 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.

In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter regardless of whether batting is their particular area of expertise. Historically, batsman and batswoman were used, and these terms remain in widespread use. Batters have to adapt to various conditions when playing on different cricket pitches, especially in different countries; therefore, as well as having outstanding physical batting skills, top-level batters will have quick reflexes, excellent decision-making skills, and be good strategists.

During an innings two members of the batting side are on the pitch at any time: the one facing the current delivery from the bowler is called the striker, while the other is the non-striker. When a batter is out, they are replaced by a teammate. This continues until the end of the innings, which in most cases is when 10 of the team members are out, whereupon the other team gets a turn to bat.

In cricket, a run is the unit of scoring. The team with the most runs wins in many versions of the game, and always draws at worst (see result), except for some results decided by the DLS method, which is used in rain-shortened limited-overs games when the two teams have had a different number of opportunities to score runs.

One run (known as a "single") is scored when the two batters (the striker and the non-striker) start off positioned at opposite ends of the pitch (which has a length of 22 yards) and then they each arrive safely at the other end of the pitch (i.e. they cross each other without being run out).

In cricket, a crease is a white line painted or chalked on the field of play, that defines the area within which the batters and bowlers operate. The term crease may also be used to refer to the rectangular area enclosed by the lines. 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).

In cricket, an over consists of six legal deliveries bowled from one end of a cricket pitch to the player batting at the other end, almost always by a single bowler.

A maiden over is an over in which no runs are scored that count against the bowler (so leg byes and byes may be scored as they are not counted against the bowler). A wicket maiden is a maiden over in which a wicket is also taken. Similarly, double and triple wicket maidens are when two and three wickets are taken in a maiden over.

In cricket, a ground is a location where cricket matches are played, comprising a cricket field, cricket pavilion and any associated buildings and amenities.

A batter's ground is the area behind the popping crease at their end of the pitch. It is one of the two safe zones that batters run between to score runs.