Test cricket

Test cricket is a form of international cricket started in 1877 during the 1876/77 English cricket team's tour of Australia. The first Test match began on 15 March 1877 and had a timeless format with four balls per over. It ended on 19 March 1877 with Australia winning by 45 runs. The Test cricket series between England and Australia is called The Ashes. Since then, over 1,800 Test matches have been played and the number of Test playing nations has increased to ten with Bangladesh, the most recent nation elevated to Test status, making its debut in 2000. Test matches are two innings per side, and nowadays, over a period of up to a maximum of five days—although matches are sometimes completed with a day or even two to spare. In the past, Tests have been played over three, four, or six days, and some have been "Timeless"—played to a finish. Tests that are not finished within the allotted time are drawn.

One-day cricket

Main articles: Limited overs cricket and One-Day International

Limited overs matches, also known as one day cricket or instant cricket, were introduced in the English domestic season of 1963 in response to demands for a shorter and more dramatic form of cricket. One-day, single-innings, matches often took place before this, but the innovation was the limiting of each side's innings to an agreed number of overs (nowadays usually 50). The idea was taken up in the international arena in 1971, during England's tour of Australia, when a match was played on the scheduled fifth day of the rained-off third Test. The one-day game has since become a crowd-pleaser and TV-audience-generator across the globe, hastened in part by the success of the inaugural World Cup in 1975. The abbreviations ODI (One-Day International) or sometimes LOI (Limited Overs International) are used for international matches of this type. Innovations have included the introduction of coloured clothing, distinct tournaments, and "day-night" matches (where play extends into the night under floodlights); together with frequent nail-biting finishes and the impossibility of either side opting to play for a draw, these have seen ODI cricket gain many supporters.