In a days work

The fraternity of cricket commentators is an uncommonly articulate one. Yet this week,the second day of the South Africa-Australia Test match in Cape Town had most struggling to put in words their surprise as first South Africa folded up for 96,and then Australia for 47. And on the same day,bracketing this amazing sequence,all of it over in less than four hours,was the end of Australias first innings and the beginning of South Africas second this was,the record books suggest,only the second time in history that a part of all four innings of a Test had been played on a single match day. For that feat alone,wed strike a decidedly more indulgent note towards the two teams than their compatriots are willing to countenance.

The idea of a one-day Test match is seductive. Once,at the height of Australias formidable dominance,a cricket writer fretted about a forthcoming home series against Bangladesh to retain spectator interest,he said,why not set a challenge for the Australians,to strategise their game so that the entire match could be clinched in the course of a days play? It proved to be too much even for the then mighty Australians,but a similar desire to see four innings in a day has seeped into other cricket conversations. Sachin Tendulkar,for instance,suggested that a way to bring drama into one-day cricket could be by breaking up the match into four 25-over-long innings. Its not had much purchase,but the thought is interesting. After all,when the one-day format has been accelerated into the Twenty20 format,draining one-days of their power to enthral,why not reach back to the original four-innings format of the five-day game for a solution?

Australia and South Africa are hardly likely to supplement their laboured excuses for this weeks record with this theory,but the gauntlet has inadvertently been thrown down to future teams: why not try to finish a Test in a day?