For Football, it’s easy to say how long a game lasts; 90 minutes. For Rugby; 80 minutes. But for Cricket, the question is a lot more difficult due to the different types of Cricket and different situations that can occur. So just how long are Cricket Games?

Cricket has no fixed time limit but have limited numbers of overs. 20-20 games are about 3/4 hours long, one-day games last about 7/8 hours, and Test international last 5-days.

Cricket doesn’t have a time limit.

This can be confusing for fans of Football, but Cricket has a time system more similar to Tennis or Baseball, based on the number of plays rather than a fixed time limit.

There are a set number of overs that need to be played, and the game continues until either a team can’t mathematically win or every bowl has been bowled.

So it’s impossible to say when a cricket game will end because a team could give up early, or there could be so many unexpected breaks in play that it lasts hours longer than expected.

So the answer to how long are cricket games is how long is a piece of string, it depends!

Cricket Games can end early if it’s mathematically impossible to win.

Another reason why it’s hard to judge how long a cricket game will last is that the game ends when it’s impossible for the other team to win. In Football, if a team is 10 – 0 down, the game lasts 90 minutes even though the team can’t realistically win.

In Cricket, the max amount of runs you can get in a bowl is 6. So if the batting team can’t win, even if they hit all sixes, then the game is over, and everything can get to the pub nice and early.

Teams can choose not to play all their overs and declare early.

Another interesting aspect of Cricket is that teams can declare if they are batting first and gain such a big lead they don’t want to use all of their overs.

Captains normally do this when they are 100% certain they will win, but it can occasionally backfire, like in 2006 when South Africa declared against Australia, who then lost the game.

So if one side declares both innings early in a test match, and the other team does so badly they can’t mathematically win early on, the games can be relatively short and might only last three days.

How long are 20 20 cricket games?

20 20 cricket games are the fastest and most exciting format of the game. This is because they only allow each team 20 overs each to try and get as many runs as possible. This means the games are fairly short and last around 3 or 4 hours.

How long are one day International games?

The clue is in the name for One Day International games, as they last about one full workday. Each team gets to bowl 50 overs each during the day, which ends up taking around 7/8 hours.

How long are County Championship games in England?

The biggest cricket competition in England is the county championships. They are played between the county teams of England and last four full days, with each day lasting about 7 hours.

How long are Test International games?

We have saved the best for last. Test International cricket games can last a maximum of 5 days, making it one of the longest sporting match length.

This is because each team gets two innings each to bat, with about 7 hours of Cricket being played each day.

So if someone in your household is saying they are watching Cricket again, they probably aren’t watching a repeat of the same game; they are probably watching a test match.