How Long Is a Cricket Game? Length by Format Explained

Cricket match duration depends entirely on the format: a T20 lasts roughly 3 hours, an ODI around 7–8 hours across a single day, and a Test match up to 5 days. Weather, slow over rates, and how quickly sides dismiss one another can all shorten or, in Tests, extend play within a day.

Duration by format at a glance

Format	Overs per team	Typical duration	Days of play
T10	10	~90 minutes	1 (short session)
The Hundred	100 balls	~2.5 hours	1
T20	20	~3–3.5 hours	1 (evening)
ODI (50-over)	50	~7–8 hours	1 (full day)
First-class (non-Test)	Unlimited	3–4 days	3 or 4
Test match	Unlimited (90 overs/day target)	Up to 5 days	5

What actually sets the length

Cricket has no clock that stops a game the way football or basketball does. Instead, length is governed by two things: the number of overs (or balls) each side is allowed, and how long those deliveries take to bowl. A format caps the overs; the over rate — how quickly bowlers get through them — and how fast wickets fall decide the rest. That is why two matches of the same format can differ by an hour or more.

T20 and shorter formats

Twenty-over cricket is built for a single evening session. Each side’s 20 overs take roughly 80–90 minutes to bowl, plus an innings break of about 20 minutes, for a total of 3 to 3.5 hours. IPL fixtures with strategic timeouts and ceremonies can nudge closer to 4 hours. Shorter still are T10, which finishes in about 90 minutes, and The Hundred, where each team faces 100 balls and matches run about 2.5 hours.

ODI matches

A 50-over match is a full day of cricket. Teams alternate batting across roughly 7–8 hours of play, with a break of about 45 minutes between innings. The Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method applies when rain interrupts, recalculating targets over the reduced overs. A game heavily shortened by weather can be over in 5–6 hours.

Test matches

Tests are the longest format, scheduled for up to five days:

• Daily play: about 6 hours across three sessions
• Overs target: a minimum of 90 per day, dropping to 75 before the last hour on day five
• Breaks: lunch and tea, roughly 40 minutes combined
• Extra time: the day can extend up to 30 minutes to make up overs

Many Tests finish in three or four days when one side is bowled out cheaply twice. A Test can also end in a draw — most often when the fifth day is rain-affected or batters defend successfully.

Current rules affecting match length (2025–26)

From June 2025 the ICC extended the stop-clock rule into Test cricket to combat slow over rates. The fielding side must start each new over within 60 seconds of the last one ending; after two warnings per innings, further breaches concede five penalty runs to the batting team. The same clock already operates in white-ball internationals. As of 2026 these measures are aimed at keeping playing time closer to its scheduled length rather than changing the format caps themselves.

Related terms

• Over rate: the pace at which overs are bowled, measured per hour or per day
• DLS method: the calculation that resets targets in rain-hit limited-overs games
• Innings break: the interval between the two teams batting
• Declaration: a captain ending an innings voluntarily, common in Tests to force a result
• First-class cricket: multi-day domestic matches such as county cricket, the Sheffield Shield, and the Ranji Trophy, typically 3 or 4 days