To put in context the surprise that greeted the two-day Boxing Day Test, consider the rarity by arithmetic. The match in Melbourne was Test No 2,615 and the 27th to finish inside two days. You probably don’t need a calculator to see that is roughly 1%.
Yet we have had two such matches in this Ashes series, plus another in Australia three years ago. We’ve had half a dozen two-day Tests since 2021. What gives?
