The first day of the third Test between Australia and India lasted only 80 balls, but that was enough to prevent a rarely used follow-on law from coming into play.
At Brisbane, India made two changes to their playing XI from Adelaide, leaving out R Ashwin and Harshit Rana for Ravindra Jadeja and Akash Deep, while Australia replaced Scott Boland with a now-fit Josh Hazlewood.
Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to field, but rain stopped play after 5.2 overs. The Test resumed, only for rain to return and the players to come off the field again – this time for good – after 13.2 overs. The entire day saw exactly an hour’s cricket, over the course of which Australia reached 28-0.
Since fewer than 15 overs were bowled, the spectators got their refund. While that must have come as a relief, the 80 balls of cricket left an impact on the course of the Test match as well, at least as far as the follow-on rule is concerned.
READ: How a rain-affected draw at Brisbane can affect India and Australia’s WTC final chances
As per Law 14.1 of Cricket, for a Test match (or any first-class match) lasting five days or longer, the team batting first needs to be ahead by 200 or more runs at the end of the first innings to enforce the follow-on – unless Law 14.3 is applicable.
Law 14.3 (“First day’s play lost”) states: “If no play takes place on the first day of a match of more than one day’s duration, 14.1 shall apply in accordance with the number of days remaining from the start of play. The day on which play first commences shall count as a whole day for this purpose, irrespective of the time at which play starts.”
In other words, had there been no cricket at all on day one, day two would have been considered the first day of the Test match, effectively reducing it to a four-day affair. Let alone 80 balls, even one ball of cricket in the entire day would have ensured that.
For a four-day match (the usual norm in domestic first-class tournaments), the follow-on margin is 150 runs, the same as three-day games. For two days, the margin reduces to 100 runs and for one-day games, it is 75.
A famous application of this took place during the first Test of India’s 1970-71 tour of the West Indies. After the first day at Kingston was lost to rain, India posted 387 and bowled out the hosts for 217. At the innings break, Ajit Wadekar arrived at the home dressing room to announce that he had enforced the follow-on, much to the confusion of Garry Sobers.
The West Indies saved that Test, but Pakistan were not as fortunate at Lord’s in 2001, where England made 391 and bowled them out for 203 and 179 to win by an innings.
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