Shortest completed Test match (overs bowled)

India (153 and 80-3) and South Africa (55 and 176) completed a Test match in just 642 balls (107 overs) midway through the afternoon session on day two of a possible five at Newlands in Cape Town, South Africa, between 3–4 January 2024.

After the hosts were skittled for 55 in 23.2 overs (140 balls) and India had collapsed to 153 all out in 34.5 overs (209 balls) – an innings that included the most wickets lost without scoring a run in a Test match innings (6) –on a lively pitch that produced 23 wickets on the first day, South Africa resumed day two on 62 for 3 but were bundled out for 176 in 36.5 overs (221 balls) before the visitors wrapped up a remarkable victory by cruising to 80 for 3 in 12 overs (72 balls) to tie the two-match series 1-1.

South Africa and India broke a Test record that had stood for almost 92 years: on 12 and 15 February 1932, hosts Australia (153) crushed South Africa (36 and 45) by an innings and 72 runs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), in a match that lasted just 656 balls (109.2 overs).

India raced to victory at Newlands despite a better-than-a-run-a-ball second-innings 106 from opener Aiden Markram, who scored 60.23% of South Africa’s total of 176 – the Proteas’ highest-ever individual contribution by percentage in a completed Test innings. Pacemen Mohammed Siraj (6 for 15) and Jasprit Bumrah (6 for 61) were the chief destroyers in South Africa’s first and second innings, respectively.