Cricket Australia has declared the following:
Play has been stopped today due to rain. Play will resume tomorrow and all following days at 09:50am (local time) with minimum 98 overs to be bowled.
So that’s stumps. What a bummer.
Day two begins at 10.50am AEDT.
Well, seeing as stumps has been called… you’re probably doing something else, so there’s not much point in me being here, is there?
That’ll be the end of our live coverage today. We only got 13.2 overs in - if you haven’t been following, India won the toss, sent Australia into bat, and pretty soon came to regret that decision. The ball hadn’t done much when the heavens opened and forced a delay with Australia at 0-28 with openers Usman Khawaja (19*) and Nathan McSweeney (4*) getting the hosts off to a solid start. And that delay went all day.
Let’s hope tomorrow is a bit clearer on the weather front.
Thanks for your company. Have a good one.
Cricket Australia has declared the following:
Play has been stopped today due to rain. Play will resume tomorrow and all following days at 09:50am (local time) with minimum 98 overs to be bowled.
So that’s stumps. What a bummer.
Day two begins at 10.50am AEDT.
Question from Ian:
Do cricket commentators contact team managers during a match to provide bowling advice?
Nope. Australia very happy with their coaching setup. Players don’t have their phones during a Test. Have to hand them in for anti-corruption reasons. I’d be stunned if an ex-player would ring to give advice. Outside of games, fair play.
Question from Tony:
Why can’t the bowling side have the option of taking the new ball from one end and keep old ball for spin at other end? As soon as old ball misses two overs, then it is forfeited.
We don’t make the rules Tony but don’t mind it as a suggestion. Would be too hard for the batters I think. Getting used to the new ball is hard enough after facing on 70+ overs old. To keep chopping and changing each over a bit of a hard ask. Be entertaining to watch though and a real skill of the batsman.
Perth: India win by 295 runs; Australia in disarray; the captain and crew questioned.
Adelaide: Australia win by 10 wickets; India under the pump; the captain looking frail; the superstars looking a lot less super.
Mitchell Starc and his Australian teammates celebrate in Adelaide as the home side levelled the series.Credit: Getty Images
A week can be a long time in Test cricket.
Perth: India win by 295 runs; Australia in disarray; the captain and crew questioned.
Adelaide: Australia win by 10 wickets; India under the pump; the captain looking frail; the superstars looking a lot less super.
A week can be a long time in Test cricket.
Read the rest of Geoff Lawson’s opinion piece, which was just published, right here.
Question from Sam:
Tom, do you think there should be World Test championships bonus points for completing a significant win over the opposition, say by an innings or by 300+ runs.
Brilliant idea. Wins aren’t all equal. Promotes positive cricket.
Question from Andy:
Has a Test team batting line up order ever coincidentally been in alphabetical order by surname?
I’d love to have the time to find out but not sure. Australia has only had two opening batsmen with a surname starting with A. Guess who? Ken Archer (five matches from 1950 to 1951) and Warwick Armstrong (one Test in 1902). Cam Bancroft is next in the alphabetical list for Australian openers but David Warner also at the top of the order has made that perfect alphabetical list a bit harder in recent years.
Question from Vigers:
Why do the selectors always get the weather wrong on these venues?
Think you’ll find that’s the meteorologists. They’ve had a stinker today. Over 70mm has fallen when forecast was for 15mm.
It’s still raining at the Gabba but only very lightly. Tea has been taken. The experts here reckon we’re a chance of getting some play later on but others with the BOM app reckon that ain’t happening.
Keep in mind that only 13.2 overs have been bowled, so fans will get a full refund if there is no more play. Anything under 15 overs is a refund.
It has been 140 years since Test cricket has been plagued by so many early finishes, but Australia captain Pat Cummins doesn’t want this helter-skelter era to prompt a change towards four-day Tests.
Saturday’s heavy rain at the Gabba looms as the best chance of sending a match to five days this summer, after two rapid-fire Tests to start the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.
Day one in Perth brought 17 wickets as the match hurried to a day-four finish, before a 14-wicket second day in Adelaide helped that game be complete by the first session on day three.
The Gabba is wet.Credit: AP
Rain aside, the Gabba has traditionally been a faster-moving venue in recent years, with only one of the past four Tests there going into the second half of day four.
Alarmingly for the sport’s bean counters, who forgo significant revenue when Tests don’t go the distance, the trend is nothing new.
In the past three-and-a-half summers, only four Tests in Australia have reached the final day, with two of those rain-affected.
Data also shows a recent drop in the number of overs per Test in Australia across the past decade, while the past two summers have had the least balls bowled per Test since 1887-88.
Globally, the situation is similar.
Some 58 per cent of matches have ended before the fifth day this decade, with balls bowled per Test at its lowest point since the 1880s.
“It is funny, the wickets are definitely a bit juicier in the past few years. They have been played at a faster pace,” Cummins said. “You always go into a Test thinking it is going to go five days. But the most important thing is if it does speed up, making sure you can adapt quickly.”
The opening two Tests of this summer have lasted an average of 243 overs, compared with the 395 per match during the 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Early finishes have prompted former England captain Michael Vaughan and others to reignite the push to make four-day Tests commonplace, allowing for a Thursday-Sunday schedule.
The International Cricket Council has previously discussed making four-day Tests mandatory, having dipped its toe into the experiment in 2017 and 2019.
ICC rules allow nations to play a four-day match, but only in fixtures that do not count towards the World Test Championship.
Host boards generally lose money in shorter Tests, through catering costs and decreased gate takings.
CA does not incur financial losses in broadcast rights deals for matches finishing early, while industry insiders suggest advertising slots and revenue for networks remain fixed.
But shorter Tests have the potential to cause headaches for advertisers and broadcasters, potentially impacting future rights dollars.
A belief also remains that four-day Tests would allow for more three-match series, given matches could be squeezed into a tighter time frame.
Those against the move point to the high percentage of draws in women’s four-day Tests, the potential for bad weather to quickly ruin a contest, and how Test length varies so much around the world.
Since Test cricket returned to Pakistan in 2019, some 12 of 18 games have reached a fifth day, usually on batter-friendly pitches.
“It’s a pretty good format,” Cummins said. “In terms of length of game, it doesn’t really bother me. I always like five days.”