Cricket, a sport adored by many, offers 3 different formats to enjoy Tests, One Day Internationals, and T20 Internationals. Nevertheless, the Test format seems to capture the imagination of cricket enthusiasts, as it continues untl the fifth day.
Moreover, even during the cricketing event conducted throughout the five days, there could be no definitive winning or losing team. Test matches are completely open to the involvement of any result among win, loss, draw, or tie.
In the following article, we will take a closer look at the rules surrounding drawn matches in Test cricket.
Test Match Draw Rules
A draw is a possible outcome that is exclusive to Test and First-Class matches, such a situation will not arise in limited-overs cricket.
So the question is what exactly is a drawn Test match and what rules govern such matches?
Among all the possible outcomes at the end of the match if no team is declared the winner or the match is drawn then it is most likely that the match will end up as drawn.
A match is declared drawn when: All 4 innings are not played or End of the given days
Scores are the same Other Factors
Let’s discuss each condition with an example.
1. All 4 Innings Are Not Completed/End of the Allotted Days
The thing is when the four innings are finished, the winning of the match would happen through one team or the other or there could be a tie. However, if you have not completed the four innings, that is the reason the match will be drawn.
Think of it this way, Pakistan is fighting it out with New Zealand in a Test match. Pakistan is on the bat first, and in the first innings, they score 600 runs. New Zealand is coming on for the second inning but the bowlers of Pakistan get them to lose their wickets for only 190 runs.
At this moment already New Zealand’s score is behind by 410 runs, hence Pakistan imposes a follow-on on Kiwis. Once again, New Zealand goes in for the batting.
The Kiwis are now starting the third inning, and they are very determined to make up for the lost runs. Hence they have now taken a lead of 160 runs over Pakistan before getting all out in the second session of the last day.
For every team, it is a do-or-die situation as Pakistan needs to score 161 runs before the end of the match on the fifth day to claim the victory while the Kiwis are in for a win if the total is not reached. Unfortunately, the chasing team reaches the mark when the time runs out with the fourth inning incomplete. This would imply a draw for both teams.
2. Equal Scores
The teams will be recorded as having played a drawn match if at the end of 5 days their runs are exactly equal. But doesn’t equal scores mean a tied match? NO.
If the team batting in the 4th innings is the second one and the scores are equal, this does not end in a tie but a draw instead.
Let’s take the match between India and West Indies, which had a similar outcome, as an example.
Batting first, the West Indies scored 590 runs in the first innings. India, on the other hand, got all out at 482 runs which made India’s deficit 108 runs in favor of the West Indies.
In this scenario, the West Indies are in their third innings, but Indian bowlers manage to dismiss them for only 134 runs. Therefore, Windies have set a target of 243 runs for India to win the match on the last day.
The match moved to the last ball of the fifth day when India was need 2 runs to win, with 2 wickets in hand. R. Ashwin took the ball to score the 2 runs, however, the fielder ran him out just as he was finishing his second run.
This meant that India could only match the Windies’ total and thus the match was drawn.
3. External Factors
External factors can be the weather conditions that cause the match to come to a standstill, bad light, or rain. If the match cannot be finished because of interruptions, then it is called a draw.
Let’s assume there is a match between England and India and on the third and fourth day, there are heavy rains and the match is interrupted repeatedly. The match stoppages will result in the loss of quite a bit of time and overs. And there is a great likelihood that neither of the teams will get to finish the innings.
In this scenario, no winner would emerge and the match would thus be considered to be drawn.
