Test cricket explained in 60 seconds

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Test cricket can be a daunting spectacle for the unfamiliar: a vast field, two sets of wickets and up to five days of play in a single match.

But it is also beautiful; a prolonged battle unlike anything else in world sport.

So as part of The Athletic’s new cricket coverage, which we launched this week, we thought it might be useful for the uninitiated if we put together this explainer on exactly how Test cricket works.

If you want to read the cricket articles we have published so far, including our analysis ahead of this summer’s Test series between England and India, click here.

What is Test match cricket?

Strap yourself in. This could take a while, which is exactly what Test cricket is about — patience.

Test matches are the traditional and longest form of the sport and are so called because it is considered the ultimate test of skill and endurance in cricket.

Tests are played by international teams of 11 players over up to five days. Each team is scheduled to bat — known as an innings, just like in baseball — and bowl twice per game.

How do they decide who bats first?

First there is a coin toss, then the captain who wins the toss decides between volunteering their team to bat first and making the opposition do so, with their choice based on factors such as the climatic conditions, the weather forecast for the days ahead, the state of the pitch and the players at their disposal.

England’s current Test captain Ben Stokes (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

A Test cricket captain has to be a mix of a meteorologist, an agronomist and a futurologist.

How long does an innings last?

An innings is over when either 10 of the batting team’s 11 players are out (there must always be two batters on the pitch — the strip of ground, 22 yards long, that has the wickets, also known as stumps, at either end) or that team’s captain decides to ‘declare’, which means they are confident they have scored enough runs already with players still to take their turns and wants to put the opposition in to bat, so his bowlers can put them under pressure.

How are the two teams set up?

Each team has 11 players made up of specialist batters and bowlers plus all-rounders (players that can bat and bowl proficiently, or bat and be the wicket-keeper, the player from the bowling team stationed immediately behind the stumps).

When batting, the two players most technically skilled at this aspect of the game take a team’s first turns. They are known as the openers, because they are opening the innings. As batters are dismissed, they are followed by others, first those known as the top order, then the all-rounders in the middle, with the bowlers — or tailenders — batting last.

How long do they play each day?

Each day’s play, weather permitting, lasts about seven hours and is divided into three sessions — the morning from an 11am start, the afternoon following a 40-minute lunch break and the evening, which comes after the 20-minute ‘tea interval’ (as in ‘afternoon tea’, though these days the professional teams don’t just drink tea and eat sandwiches in that break, although that is still how it works at village cricket clubs all across Britain).

England v India in a 2024 Test match (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

The bowling team must perform an allotted amount of overs (an over is a set of six deliveries, from the same end of the pitch) or their captain could be fined for slow play.

So how do a team actually win a Test?

The winners are the team to have scored the most runs in total. That might be after both sides have batted their two full innings, but it can be after only one of them has done that twice — if they scored fewer runs in their two innings than the other side managed in one.

Once the team batting last surpasses the combined total of their opponents’ two innings, they are described as having won by how many batters they still have who are not out in that second innings — i.e., if they have five batters left, they have won by five wickets.

If they fail to surpass the combined total, the other team is described as having won by how many runs the opposition has fallen short by. For example, if the team batting last need to score 350 to surpass the other lot’s total but only have 274 when their last batter is out, the side then bowling win by 76 runs.

Can there be a draw?

Incredibly, after almost a week of play, there can still be a draw, yes. Ultimately, to win, a team must bowl the opposition out twice. If, at the end of the designated number of overs on the last of the five days, one of the teams are still batting and have players left in the order, the match is declared a draw, regardless of whether one side has scored more runs.

The weather can also have a big impact on whether a game ends in a draw, with hours or whole days lost to rain — not so rare an occurrence during England’s sometimes inclement summers.

(Top photo: Gareth Copley via Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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