Two-day finish shows key factor in Test cricket is the contest not the duration | Geoff Lemon

If there’s imbalance in a pitch, it’s better for it to be in favour of moving a match towards a result, rather than stifling one

Every time a Test match finishes in three days, or god forbid two, the routine is the same. There are people who enjoyed the spectacle, but as ever the unhappy ones have louder voices. And man, do they get mad. If it’s a spinning wicket in Asia, people outside Asia get angry about it taking turn. If it’s a seaming wicket outside Asia, people in Asia get angry that it isn’t being criticised like a spinning one, even while it is. Most of all, across the board, the affront is apparently that this match did not meet the designation of how Test cricket should be.

Here is what seems a self-evident counter: Test matches, according to current regulations, can go for up to five days. This does not mean that they have to go for five days. Test matches that finish in the final hour of day five are great. This does not mean that the only good Test matches finish in the final hour of day five. Over 145 years there have been Test matches scheduled to max out at three days, four days, five days, six days, unlimited days and unlimited days but restricted to 10 because of the more rigid timetabling of the shipping industry and the imminent second world war.

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