Games in the sport of cricket are played over a number of hours or days, making it one of the sports with the longest playing time, though sailing, yachting, road cycling, and rallying are sometimes longer. Typically, Test and first-class cricket matches are played over three to five days with, at least, six hours of cricket being played each day. Limited overs formats of cricket take place in one day, with List A matches lasting for six hours or more and twenty20, 100-ball and ten10 matches lasting from 90 minutes to three hours. These variations in length of playing time occur because different formats of cricket have different caps on the number of legal deliveries or days that the innings or overall game can go, with games otherwise theoretically having no limit as to how long they can go. Cricket therefore has special rules about intervals for lunch, tea and drinks as well as rules about when play starts and ends. These rules are outlined in Laws 11 (Intervals) and 12 (Start of play; cessation of play) in the Laws of Cricket.
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The game is only played in dry weather. Additionally, as it is not unusual for balls to be bowled at over 130km/h (80mph) in first-class cricket, the game needs to be played in enough light for a batsman to be able to see the ball. Play is therefore halted when it rains (but not usually when it drizzles) and when there is bad light. Some one-day games and Test matches are now played under floodlights. The first day/night Test match was played between Australia and New Zealand in Adelaide, in November 2015, and was deemed a success, leading to further day/night Tests being scheduled. Day/night Test cricket is played with a pink ball as opposed to the traditional red ball to aid visibility. Apart from some experimental One Day International series in Australia's roofed Marvel Stadium, cricket is played outdoors.
These requirements mean that in England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Zimbabwe the game is played in the summer.
In the West Indies, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh games are played in the winter. In these countries the hurricane and typhoon season coincides with their summers. This has another effect. Games start earlier in these places than in the countries which play cricket as a summer sport. In these countries games start at around 09:30 rather than the 10:30 or 11:00 start time used in England, say, so that play for the day is complete before dusk, which may be as early as 17:30.
A cricket match in progress on 2 January 2004 in Sydney in the Australian summer.
Starting and finishing play
A game or day starts when the umpire at the bowler's end calls 'Play'. 'Play' is also called to restart the game after an interval or interruption. Before an interval in or interruption of play, and at the end of a match, the umpire at the bowler's end calls 'Time' and removes the bails from both of the wickets. The bowling side cannot make an appeal for a dismissal after 'Time' has been called.
The game finishes when the first of three things happens:
There is a result, so that one of the teams has won or the team batting last has lost all its wickets with both teams having the same score thereby giving a tie;
The later of the minimum number of overs for the last hour are completed and the agreed time for the end of the game has been reached (see notes below);
If the players leave the field, either for adverse conditions of ground, weather or light,[1] or in exceptional circumstances, and no further play is possible.
Notes:
In one-day cricket the second of these is replaced by the requirement that the agreed number of overs has been reached.
The term last hour can be a misnomer. One hour before the scheduled end of the game, the last hour starts. An agreed minimum number of overs (usually 15 in Test match cricket and 20 in other first-class cricket games) is bowled. The last hour therefore lasts either for the longer of 60 minutes, or the time it takes to bowl the agreed minimum number of overs. This rule is there to prevent time wasting by a team that looks likely to lose a game.
Today, Test matches are played under a set of conditions agreed by the boards of the competing countries. These are highly standardised. Days are scheduled as six hours of playing time, but there is a requirement that a minimum of 90 six-ball overs are bowled, and the third session may run overtime if the over rate has been slower than this. If there is a change of innings, two overs are deducted from the requirement.
If there are interruptions to play due to weather or bad light, the scheduled stumps time may be extended by up to one hour to compensate (light permitting). If more than an hour's play is lost, time may be added on subsequent days.
Intervals
Because of the length of the game, there are a number of intervals that occur in a game of cricket. These are:
The period between close of play on one day and the start of the next day's play.
There are special rules setting out the duration of each interval. The interval between innings lasts for 10 minutes. In Test cricket, lunch (or, in the case of day/night Test matches, dinner) will last for 40 minutes and tea for 20 minutes.
Before the coin toss to determine which side bats first, the hours of play, including the timing and duration of intervals for meals or any non-standard interval, are agreed. However, if nine wickets are down when the agreed time for lunch or tea is reached (so that the bowling team only needs one more wicket to end the batting team's innings), that interval may be delayed until the end of the innings, with a maximum delay of 30 minutes. In a one-day game the teams may agree to take the interval for tea between innings rather than have a separate interval. Also, the teams and umpires sometimes agree to have other intervals. This may be to allow the teams to be presented to an important visitor or to allow time for a presentation or acclamation when a player breaks a significant record. Other intervals may be varied slightly if a wicket falls shortly before the interval is scheduled to be taken.
Drinks intervals are agreed at the start of each day, but are not taken during the last hour of the match. Drinks intervals are particularly important when the game is played in hot climates. Games being played in heat of 40°C (104°F) and above are not unknown. Drinks intervals may not last for more than 5 minutes.
In international limited-overs cricket, there is a time limit of 60 seconds between overs, and a 5-run penalty is awarded to the batting team if the fielding team fails to begin bowling the next over by the end of the 60 seconds. However, the first two breaches of this rule by the fielding team result only in a warning.[2][3]
Notable games
A number of games are notable for either their length or because they were played through adverse conditions that would usually see the game called off.
Test match cricket is international cricket played over three or more days. Nowadays all men's Test matches are scheduled over five days. In the past some Tests were 'timeless', that is, they were scheduled to be played to their conclusion regardless of how long that took. The longest Test on record was between South Africa and England in Durban, South Africa. The game started on 3 March 1939 and play continued on the 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 13th and the 14th. Play was scheduled for the 11th, but none was possible because of rain, giving 9 days of actual play and 10 days of scheduled play. By the evening of 14 March England were 316 & 654–5 chasing South Africa's 530 & 481, needing just 42 more runs for victory. However, England needed to leave Durban the following day to catch their boat home, so, despite being a 'timeless' Test, a draw was agreed. England's 654 is the highest ever Test cricket score for teams batting last (beating the next highest by more than 200 runs).
Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at the international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings in which players have to play until they get all batsmen out; the match ends when all batsmen of the opposing team are out. It is scheduled to last for up to five days with 6 hours of play each day. A minimum of 90 overs are scheduled to be bowled per day making it the sport with the longest playing time. In the past, some Test matches had no time limit and were called Timeless Tests. The term "test match" was originally coined in 1861–62 but in a different context.
The Laws of Cricket is a code that specifies the rules of the game of cricket worldwide. The earliest known code was drafted in 1744. Since 1788, the code has been owned and maintained by the private Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in Lord's Cricket Ground, London. There are currently 42 Laws, which describe all aspects of how the game is to be played. MCC has re-coded the Laws six times, each with interim revisions that produce more than one edition. The most recent code, the seventh, was released in October 2017; its 3rd edition came into force on 1 October 2022.
Short form cricket is a collective term for several modified forms of the sport of cricket, with playing times significantly shorter than more traditional forms of the game.
Cricket is a multi-faceted sport with different formats, depending on the standard of play, the desired level of formality, and the time available. One of the main differences is between matches limited by time in which the teams have two innings apiece, and those limited by number of overs in which they have a single innings each. The former, known as first-class cricket if played at the senior level, has a scheduled duration of three to five days ; the latter, known as limited overs cricket because each team bowls a limit of typically 50 overs, has a planned duration of one day only. A separate form of limited overs is Twenty20, originally designed so that the whole game could be played in a single evening, in which each team has an innings limited to twenty overs.
The result in a game of cricket may be a "win" for one of the two teams playing, or a "tie". In the case of a limited overs game, the game can also end with "no result" if the game can't be finished on time, and in other forms of cricket, a "draw" may be possible. Which of these results applies, and how the result is expressed, is governed by Law 16 of the laws of cricket.
The Australian cricket team in England in 1948 is famous for being the only Test match side to play an entire tour of England without losing a match. This feat earned them the nickname of "The Invincibles", and they are regarded as one of the greatest cricket teams of all time. According to the Australian federal government, the team "is one of Australia's most cherished sporting legends". The team was captained by Don Bradman, who was making his fourth and final tour of England.
The 2005 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing cricket rivalry between England and Australia. Starting on 21 July 2005, England and Australia played five Tests, with the Ashes held by Australia as the most recent victors. The final result was a 2–1 series win for England, who succeeded in their biennial attempt to win the urn.
The South African cricket team toured Australia for cricket matches during the 2005–06 season. South Africa had already played two One Day International series during this season, beating New Zealand 4–0 at home before travelling to India and drawing the series there 2–2. The team had been playing 14 successive ODIs before arriving in Australia, with their last Test match against West Indies in April and May 2005. South Africa played one first class warm-up match, one three-day warm-up match without first class status, and one one-day match before they embarked on the three-Test series, which began on 16 December and ended on 6 January. They also participated in the 2005–06 VB Series, a three-team one-day tournament, along with Australia and Sri Lanka, where they finished last.
Sri Lanka toured England for cricket matches during the 2006 international cricket season. England were back home for the first time since September and looked to maintain their Test standards, which saw them keep their second place in the ICC Test Championship in India, and the teams were also competing for sixth place in the ICC ODI Championship as both England and Sri Lanka were coming off the back of two lost ODI tours on the Asian sub-continent, against India and Pakistan respectively. To add to problems, both teams were likely to be missing some key members of the team as England were without some of their squad for their previous tour and, two days before Sri Lanka departed for England, it was revealed that skipper Marvan Atapattu would stay at home for the tour due to back problems that had forced him to skip his previous tour too. Jehan Mubarak was brought in as his replacement.
The Australian cricket team toured England in the 1953 season to play a five-match Test series against England for The Ashes.
The Indian cricket team toured England in the 1971 season and played 19 first-class fixtures, winning 7, losing only one and drawing 11.
The South African cricket team toured England in the 1955 season to play a five-match Test series against England. England won the series 3–2 with no matches drawn.
The England cricket team toured South Africa in the 1956–57 season. The tour was organised by the Marylebone Cricket Club and the side played five Test matches as "England" and 15 other first-class matches as "MCC". Two of the first-class matches took place in Rhodesia in what is now Zimbabwe.
The Indian cricket team began a tour of Australia in December 2007, playing the 4 match Test series for the Border Gavaskar Trophy, followed by a single Twenty20 match on 1 February 2008. They also participated in the Commonwealth Bank tri-series against Australia and Sri Lanka from 3 February to 4 March.
The First Test of the 1948 Ashes series was one of five Tests in The Ashes cricket series between Australia and England. The match was played at Trent Bridge in Nottingham from 10 to 15 June with a rest day on 13 June 1948. Australia won the match by eight wickets to take a 1–0 series lead.
The 2015 Ashes series was a series of Test cricket matches played between England and Australia for The Ashes. The venues were Sophia Gardens (Cardiff), Lord's (London), Edgbaston (Birmingham), Trent Bridge (Nottingham), and The Oval (London). Australia were the defending holders of the Ashes going into the series, having won in 2013–14.
The Ireland cricket team toured England in July 2019 to play a one-off four-day Test match at Lord's. It was the first Test match to be played between the two sides, and was England's first four-day Test match since they toured New Zealand in 1971. It was Ireland's third Test match, and their twelfth international fixture against England.
The 2019 Ashes series was a series of Test cricket matches played between England and Australia for The Ashes in August and September 2019. The venues were Edgbaston, Lord's, Headingley, Old Trafford and The Oval.
The Pakistan cricket team toured the West Indies in July and August 2021 to play two Tests and four Twenty20 International (T20I) matches. The Test series was part of the 2021–2023 ICC World Test Championship. The fixtures for the tour were confirmed by Cricket West Indies in May 2021. The T20I series was originally scheduled for five matches. However, this was changed to four T20Is, following the rescheduled One Day International (ODI) fixtures in the West Indies' series against Australia.
The 2023 Ashes series, branded as the LV= Insurance Men's Ashes Series for sponsorship reasons, was a series of Test cricket matches played between England and Australia for the Ashes in June and July 2023. The five-match series was a part of the 2023–2025 ICC World Test Championship, the venues being Edgbaston, Lord's, Headingley, Old Trafford and The Oval.
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