The Longest Test Match Had 43 Hours, 16 Minutes of Play—and Still Ended in a Draw

The longest men’s Test cricket match was South Africa versus England at Kingsmead, Durban, from 3–14 March 1939. It contained 43 hours and 16 minutes of actual play, spread across 12 calendar dates, and ended in a draw. Guinness World Records recognises it as the longest men’s Test match.

The familiar description—“a ten-day Test”—needs unpacking. Ten numbered match days is not the same as ten days on which cricket was played, nor ten uninterrupted days of play.

How long did it actually last?

The scorecard’s daily record distinguishes three counts:

• 12 calendar dates: 3 March through 14 March, inclusive.
• 10 numbered match days: excluding Sundays 5 and 12 March, which were rest days.
• Nine days with play: Saturday 11 March was completely washed out.

The recorded playing time was 43 hours, 16 minutes. Overnight intervals, rest days and weather stoppages were not playing time.

It was a timeless Test: the intended arrangement was to play to a result rather than stop after a fixed number of days. England led the series 1–0 before this fifth and final Test, triggering the boards’ agreement that it should be played to a finish. The Guardian’s historical account explains that arrangement.

The scorecard: 1,981 runs without a winner

South Africa won the toss and batted first. These are the four innings in playing order:

Innings	Team	Score
First	South Africa	530 all out
Second	England	316 all out
Third	South Africa	481 all out
Fourth	England	654/5

Source: South Africa–England, fifth Test, Durban, 1939 scorecard.

The match aggregate was 530 + 316 + 481 + 654 = 1,981 runs. That is a combined team total across four innings—not one batter’s score or one team’s innings.

England’s victory target was 530 + 481 − 316 + 1 = 696. They finished on 654/5, still needing 42 runs, with five wickets in hand. Bill Edrich’s 219, Wally Hammond’s 140 and Paul Gibb’s 120 were the major contributions to that final innings. Cricinfo’s account of the last day records those scores and the unfinished chase.

Why a timeless match ended in a draw

Rain interrupted the final afternoon and prevented further play. England also had to leave Durban to travel to Cape Town, where their ship, the Athlone Castle, was due to depart for Britain on 17 March. The match was called off rather than resumed the next day. The Guardian’s account sets out both the weather interruption and the travel deadline.

The scale of the scores needs that era context. With no initial deadline, batting sides could accumulate runs without the usual pressure to leave enough time for a result. Nor did the pitch deteriorate as expected: permitted rolling after overnight rain helped keep it favourable for batting, according to the same historical account.

Durban is therefore an extraordinary duration record, but its totals are not a like-for-like benchmark for a time-limited Test. The opportunity to bat was fundamentally different.

What about cricket marathon records?

“Longest cricket game” can also mean an organised endurance event. That is a separate category: as of 3 October 2026, Guinness lists Blunham Cricket Club’s 2019 cricket marathon at 168 hours and 22 minutes, achieved from 24–31 August.

That marathon record uses a different definition and should not be mixed into Test statistics.