Edging Towards Darkness

Cricket matches didn''t always top out at five days, regardless of a result or not – they used to be ''timeless'', with play continuing until one team won, no matter how many days that took.

The last of these – which took place in Durban in 1939, in a series pitched against the backdrop of impending war – is now universally acknowledged as ''the timeless Test''. Weighing in at a prodigious ten day...