The success of Adelaide’s day-night Test will only give Cricket Australia (CA) further encouragement as they look to address dwindling crowds across the summer.

More than 125,000 fans piled into the Adelaide Oval for a ‘dead rubber’ as a new-look Australia showed grit and fight to defeat South Africa in the third Test – an important and morale-boosting triumph ahead of a tricky series against Pakistan.

The television ratings were also particularly strong – a timely result for CA just days after broadcaster Channel Nine had queried the worth of the rights with a struggling Australian side.

And now it seems the players are on board, too, with South African captain Faf du Plessis and Aussie boss Steve Smith giving it their seal of approval.

“Before this series, the questions that we did have about the pink ball and playing day-night cricket often were more sceptical,” du Plessis said.

“And now that we have been through it, not so much. I think it’s positive signs going forward.”

In a significant U-turn, du Plessis then said he would like to see South Africa host a day-night Test.

“I would definitely like to see it in South Africa,” he said.

“And then it’s great to go around the world and play different conditions.

“If you can play one Test with pink balls [each series] I think it adds something different to Test cricket.”

The pitch

Much of the fallout to Australia’s first day-night Test against New Zealand in Adelaide last year centred around the fact the match only went for three days.

The pink ball now has a visible black seam. Photo: Getty

The white seam on the pink ball was supposedly too difficult to see for batsmen, while a greentop pitch did them no favours either.

But with a revised pink ball from manufacturers Kookaburra, and a pitch that was more batsman-friendly – but still retained the balance between bat and ball so sorely lacking in many Tests these days – players were happier.

“I thought it was perfect,” Smith said when asked to comment on the Test and the pitch.

“I thought it was slightly less grass on it [the pitch] than last year and that was probably the difference between three and four days.

“You want to see the Test match going a little bit longer [than the three days last year] and there was always enough in it for both batters and bowlers if you applied yourself and were willing to get through tough periods and play the ball under your eyes.

“All the things Usman Khawaja [who made 145] did in the first innings, you can score big runs.

“But the bowlers, there’s always something there for them that keeps them interested as well, so [it was a] great Test cricket wicket.”

TV ratings high

After a drop of nearly 25 per cent in television ratings during the season-opening Test in Perth, Channel Nine boss Hugh Marks acknowledged “no one wants to watch the Australian team losing”.

He was right. But they do want to watch day-night Tests.

The day-night Test is a hit with fans. Photo: Getty

Ratings during the Adelaide Test averaged at 717,000 viewers, with the peak coming when 1.056 million watched Australia complete their run chase on Sunday.

The sessions under lights were the most popular, pulling in 893,000 viewers on average, according to OzTAM.

During the Adelaide Test, Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said, as quoted by News Corp: “The reality is if you have a day-night Test match more people are going to come than they would otherwise.

“And more people are going to watch on TV.

“Right now in Adelaide it would appear we’ve got a pretty good balance where the game is good, the fans coming to the game are happy and we’ve got heaps watching on TV.”