MasterstrokeMatch play and rules
Session (Test cricket)
A day of Test cricket is three sessions of about two hours, split by lunch and tea, and each one is a small contest in its own right.
A session is one of the three blocks of play that make up a day of Test cricket, separated by lunch and tea and ended by stumps.
Each session lasts about two hours, with a target of 30 overs. Play begins in the morning, breaks for lunch, resumes for the afternoon session, breaks again for tea, and finishes with the evening session. Time lost to weather can extend a day, and the last hour has its own rules about the minimum number of overs.
Commentators talk about "winning the session" because a Test is decided in these two-hour blocks. Two wickets before lunch sets up an afternoon; none in a session on a flat pitch hands the batting side control. Captains plan around the breaks: a declaration timed so the opposition must bat a tricky half hour before stumps, or a nightwatchman sent in to see out the day's last overs. Overnight, players recover, the pitch settles or sweats under the covers, and the whole contest resets at the next morning's first ball.
In Masterstroke: Tests run three sessions a day with stumps and overnight recovery, and inside a live match you can simulate the rest of a session and step back in when it matters.