Ahmedabad pink ball tests - wickets tumbling in 2 day Test !!

A pink ball test at Ahmedabad and is likely to close within 2 days ! – not a great advertisement for Test Cricket or is that one !!

Day 1 – England all out for 112 – India 99/3.  Sunil Gavaskar was talking to Greame Swann on how the match would slip out of England grasp with a lead of 2oo or even 150 !  .. .. that was not to be – Indians were bowled out for 145!

At the time of writing this  (19:00 hrs on 25.2.2021) – 17 wickets have tumbled down – India collapsed to 145 and then bundled out England for 81.  Washington Sundar at last got a bowl and off his 4^th delivery removed James Anderson.  The star was Axar Patel – with another fifer again – 5/32 and 10 wicket haul in this match, his second test. .. .. the man in limelight was Ravi Ashwin 4/48 .. .. and becoming the second fastest to 400 Test wickets.

India needs 49 and hope that they get the runs easily in a few minutes !!

For sure, many would be searching the web on records and more specifically on how many tests have folded up inside two days.  First have your search parameters right .. .. you might end up reading that test at North Sound in Feb 2009.    Test no. 1907 at  Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound, Antigua

- West Indies won the toss, elected to field but  the test had to be  abandoned after just ten deliveries, after the sand-based outfield was deemed a safety risk to the bowlers. The day's play was halted midway through the second over, only two balls after a 20-minute delay for rain, as Fidel Edwards flung the ball away in disgust, after failing three times in a row to enter his delivery stride. After a lengthy discussion between the captains, Chris Gayle and Andrew Strauss, and the onfield umpires, Daryl Harper and Tony Hill, the ICC match referee, Alan Hurst was left to make the difficult decision.    

Gleaning records, on 18th Aug 2000 - In one of the shortest Test matches ever played, England defeated the West Indies by an innings and 39 runs in Headingley to record a Test win in just two-days.  West Indies won the toss and elected to bat first, but were dismissed for a paltry total of 172, with Craig White taking five wickets. Darren Gough picked three wicket; Ramnaresh Sarwan scored an unbeaten 59 for the visitors. England, in reply, made 272 with a young Michael Vaughan scoring 76 and Graeme Hick providing support, scoring 59. Courtney Walsh and Curtney Ambrose picked up 4 wickets each to keep the Windies in the game.

Reading further back, in Aug 1882, (yes centuries ago!)  - Australia: 63 & 122 defeated England by 7 runs.  England had scores of 101 & 77

Easy to recall in June 2018,  at Bengalure, Afghanisthan were defeated under two days.  The score card would rad : India 474 (Dhawan 107, Vijay 105, Pandya 71, Ahmadzai 3-51) beat Afghanistan 109 (Nabi 24, Ashwin 4-27, Jadeja 2-18) & 103 (Shahidi 36*, Jadeja 4-17, Umesh 3-26) by an innings and 262 runs.

The shortest test appears to be Melbourne in 1932,  during the South Africa tour of Australia in 1932. South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first in the fifth Test on the series. They were dismissed for 36 runs in their first innings in just 23.2 overs. Australia then posted a score of 153 runs in 54.3 overs. South Africa needed 117 runs to make Australia bat again in the match. The Proteas were dismissed for 45 runs in 31.3 overs. They lost the game by an innings and 72 runs and Australia won the 5-match series 5-0. Australia defeated South Africa in just 109.2 overs, which is the least number of overs taken by a team to win a Test match.

Interesting !  [statistics gleaned from various web sources] 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
25.2.2021 @ 19.00 hrs.