The old joke about Americans not understanding how a game can last five days and still not produce a winner could be extended to six on Wednesday when the first World Test Championship final goes into overtime.
A sixth day of 98 overs will be played but it will take an Indian collapse or an unexpected display of fireworks from Virat Kohli for this soggy showpiece to end in anything other than stalemate.
Two whole days have been lost to the rain that seems to hang around Southampton whenever there’s a Test in town but dismal over-rates and cricket’s infuriating inflexibility over bad light have not helped.