Would switch to four days have enlivened Tests?
The editor of Cricket Statistician analyses recent events
So Australia wrapped up the Brisbane Test with most of day five left. But what if this had been a four-day Test, such being all the rage for no clearly defined reason.
Let’s forget the notion of four days of 100 overs. That’s an hour extra and seven hours is probably too long a day in a four-day match (and they wouldn’t bowl the overs any quicker). By day three England would have been trying to make sure they didn’t lose and might have succeeded. There could have been excitement if Australia had chased 170 in 34 overs, but frustration if they had come up short.
On the other hand, this was a short and not terribly exciting fifth day (though fun for Australians) – you wouldn’t sell full-price tickets.
In the India v Sri Lanka Test nothing much might have changed if it had been shorter, since it finished in four days. India might have declared a bit earlier, which in a five-day match there was no pressure on them to do, but they would probably have thought a day and a bit would have been enough, rather than two and a bit.
Perhaps the classic four-day Test was England v Australia at Lord’s in 1930. England 425 and 375, Australia 729-6 dec and 72-3. All those runs (254 of them from Bradman, of course). But in that match over 500 overs were bowled in the four days, which is quite a few more overs than you would see in a five-day Test today, where more than 450 would be a shock.
Let’s look at the Tests so far this season.
Pakistan played Sri Lanka twice. The first game, which Sri Lanka won by 21 runs, was the best game of the winter so far, with Pakistan in the end collapsing hideously against Rangana Herath, and it ran well into the fifth day.
The second game also ran into the fifth day before Sri Lanka won. This, though, after Sri Lanka declined to enforce the follow-on and then collapsed for 96. They might have done differently in a four-day match.
Then South Africa played Bangladesh in Bloemfontein. South Africa won the first by a wide margin (333 runs) but the game ran well into the fifth day. But they won the second by an innings and 254 in three days, with Bangladesh bowled out in under 43 overs each time.
India and Sri Lanka had drawn at Kolkata earlier this month after India recovered from a substantial first innings deficit to nearly winning the match. At the start of the fifth day India were 59 ahead with nine second innings wickets standing.
However a large part of both the first and second days were lost to rain. That is one of the potential problems with four-day Tests.
Before that West Indies played two Tests in Zimbabwe. West Indies won the first in four days, but the second was drawn after five with the game only in its third innings.