Ireland and New Zealand are playing their first-ever Test match in Belfast. What makes it a historic moment for both the nations is the fact that it is the first-ever meeting between the two in the red-ball category. On the other hand, another interesting aspect of this Test match is its duration. While all other Test matches continue for five days, the current contest will end after just four days. This one-off Test began on May 27 and will conclude on May 30. This is the fifth-ever four-day Test match in international cricket while it will be the first such Test for New Zealand. Ireland have participated in two such Tests before against England cricket team in 2019 and 2023 at Lord’s. Differences in Four-Day Test Match Rules The structure of the game has remained unchanged in the case of four-day Test matches. As in the case of a five-day Test match, there are two innings per side, and the match ends in a win, loss, tie or draw. However, there have been some noteworthy changes in the rules in comparison with a normal five-day Test match. First, in terms of the number of overs to be bowled per day, in a regular Test, both sides are bound to play at least 90 overs per day, whereas in four-day Tests, this figure is raised to 98 overs. Second, in connection with the follow-on rule, while in five-day Tests a team requires a first innings lead of 200 runs to force the follow-on, in the case of four-day Tests, this figure comes down to 150 runs. Finally, the duration of each session in four-day Tests increases to two-and-a-half hours, whereas in a normal Test match, it is only two hours long. Also Read | Watch: Flying Irishman! Liam McCarthy Takes Blinder to Dismiss Devon Conway in IRE vs NZ Only Test Why ICC Introduced Four-Day Tests The International Cricket Council sanctioned the four-day test matches experimentally in 2017. The reason for allowing four-day tests was that such tests would ease the burden of huge expenses that small cricketing boards have to bear when arranging test matches. Four-day Test was played for the very first time between South African and Zimbabwe in 2017. After that, very few matches were played as a four-day test, and the Ireland v/s New Zealand test is one such occasion which is very significant in the history of test cricket. It is a learning experience for the Irish team playing against the top-notch New Zealand team, while the latter team will play the match as a pre-test before heading for their test matches in England.