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Fans of Test cricket who would've wanted to see some classic, old-fashioned, gritty cricket played over 10 days in South Africa would've been disappointed by the way the recent two-match Test series unfolded.
The Boxing Day test attained a premature end on Day 3 as Dean Elgar batted India out of the contest, with Nandre Burger and Kagiso Rabada ripping through the Indian batting order despite the best efforts of KL Rahul and Virat Kohli.
The second Test at Cape Town took it one notch higher, with the match ending within Day 2 on one of the most bowler-friendly wickets in international cricket. It became one of the shortest-ever Test matches to be completed and have a winner.
On that note, let's look at the top five shortest completed Test matches by balls bowled.
#5 ENG vs AUS, Lord's, 1888 - 792 balls
England and Australia played out a really short Test match way back in 1888 at Lord's. It was the first of a three-match Test series in Australia's tour of England in July 1888, and Australia won the toss, opting to bat first.
They scored 116 in 71.2 overs in their first innings, courtesy of handy contributions from captain Percy Mcdonnell and wicketkeeper Jack Blackham. They then bundled England out for a mere 53, with pacer Charlie Turner picking up a 5-fer, with WG Grace and seamer Johnny Briggs the only English players to get into double figures.
The low scores continued in the second innings as Australia were bowled out for 60, setting England a target of 124 to chase down in the fourth innings. Five-wicket hauls for both Charlie Turner and JJ Ferris enabled the Aussies to bowl England out for 62, despite WG Grace's 24, which was incidentally the highest individual score in the entire match.
It is one of the shortest completed Test matches to date.
#4 ENG vs AUS, Manchester, 1888 - 788 balls
England didn't take much time to exact revenge for the Lord's humbling and after winning the second Test in the same series and leveling the tie, they beat Australia at Manchester in the third and final Test.
This time, England won the toss and chose to bat first and captain WG Grace made the most of the decision, leading from the front with a knock of 38 as England's middle and lower middle order helped them get to a respectable total of 172.
Left-arm spinner Bobby Peel then spun a web around the Australian batters, finishing with figures of 7/31 to bowl Australia out for 81 in the 53rd over. England enforced the follow-on since the margin for avoiding it was 80 runs in 1888.
Australia's second essay was even worse than their first, as they were bundled out for 70 runs in 31.1 overs as England claimed an innings victory to win the series 2-1 and break the record for the shortest completed Test match at that time.
#3 WI vs ENG, Bridgetown, 1935 - 672 balls
England beat the West Indies by four wickets in what was one of the shortest completed Test matches due to constant rain interferences. It was the first of a four-match Test series at Bridgetown, and in rainy, bowler-friendly conditions, England opted to bowl first.
WI scored 102 in 47 overs in their first innings, riding on George Headley's 44, and in response, England ended their innings at 81/7, declaring, due to time shortages due to rain delays, opting to bowl again instead. With a lead of 21 in hand, West Indies also cut their own innings short, declaring with the score at 51/6, leaving England a target of 73, a gutsy move that almost paid off.
Seamer Manny Martindale helped WI reduce England to 48/6 at one stage, but Wally Hammond's unbeaten 29 helped England chase the target down with four wickets in hand and bring to an end, a really low-scoring thriller.
#2 AUS vs SA, Melbourne, 1932 - 656 balls
Australia took on South Africa at home in a five-match Test series, and after taking a 4-0 lead, the hosts wanted to complete the whitewash at the MCG, and they did so in some style.
SA won the toss and chose to bat first, but they couldn't handle the pace of Laurie Nash and the guile of left-arm tweaker Bert Ironmonger, who finished with four and five wickets for the innings to bowl them out for 36 in the first innings.
Australia made 153 runs in 54.3 overs in their reply, with Jack Fingleton and Alan Kippax recording scores in excess of 40. SA needed to score 117 runs to set Australia a target, but their batters had no answer to Bert Ironmonger's spin, with the spinner picking up a six-wicket haul in the second innings to wrap the Proteas innings up for 45.
Australia won by an innings and 72 runs in a match that lasted only for 656 balls.
#1 IND vs SA, Cape Town, 2024 - 642 balls
The time periods of the matches above show how old a record India and South Africa broke in the second Test at Newlands, Cape Town, in 2024. On a truly treacherous wicket, India's bowlers won them the match, with Mohammed Siraj's stellar six-fer helping bowl South Africa out for 55 before lunch on Day 1.
In their reply, India fared much better and were cruising at one point, with Kohli and KL Rahul at the crease and the score at 153/4. However, in a sight which cricketing fans will never forget, they lost all their remaining wickets without scoring a run, taking a lead of 98 runs when it could easily have been much more.
Aiden Markram rode his luck and scored a sublime hundred on the venomous surface even as Jasprit Bumrah cleaned out the rest of the SA batting lineup in the second innings. They scored 176 runs in 36.5 overs to set India a target of 79.
The Indian batters came out all guns blazing, chasing the total down in 12 overs, making this match the shortest in terms of balls, with the game ending in well under two days and taking only 642 balls to do so.
