India and Bangladesh are all set to play their first ever Day & Night Test match on Friday, 22 November at Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata.
Eleven day and night Tests have been played till now in International cricket.
The day and night Test matches were introduced to revamp Test cricket in the International circuit and attract the audience towards the oldest format of the game.
Dwindling crowd for Test matches was a major concern for the cricket administrators and they soon had to come up with a solution. That’s when they went forward with the idea of day and night cricket with pink ball.
Here’s some trivia on the Day and Night matches played so far:
- The first day and night Test was played between Australia and New Zealand at Adelaide in November 2015. Australia recorded a win in three days by three wickets. Australian wicket keeper Peter Nevill scored the highest individual score in that Test, 66.
- The team winning the toss and batting has won five times while the team winning the toss and bowling has won only once (NZ beating England by an innings and 49 runs in Auckland, 2018).
- Four day/night Tests have produced wins by an innings:-
- England defeated West Indies by an innings and 209 runs at Birmingham in 2017.
- South Africa defeated Zimbabwe by an innings and 120 runs at Port Elizabeth in 2017-18.
- New Zealand defeated England by an innings and 49 runs at Auckland in 2017-18.
- Australia defeated Sri Lanka by an innings and 40 runs at Brisbane in 2018-19.
- Two innings of 200-plus have been registered:-
- 302 not out by Pakistan's Azhar Ali vs West Indies at Dubai (DSC) in 2016-17.
- 243 by England's Alastair Cook vs West Indies at Birmingham in 2017.
- Three best bowling performances have been -
- 8/49 by West Indian Devendra Bishoo vs Pakistan at Dubai (DSC) in 2016-17.
- 6/23 by Australia's Pat Cummins vs Sri Lanka at Brisbane in 2018-19.
- 6/32 by New Zealand's Trent Boult vs England at Auckland in 2017-18.
- Thirteen first-class day/night Test matches in India have been played:
- Twelve Duleep Trophy matches since 2016-17.
- One Ranji Trophy Final between Mumbai and Delhi in Gwalior in 1996-97.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)