When England smashed an incredible score of 823-7 declared in the first innings of their Test match against Pakistan in October 2024, eyebrows were raised. Pakistan had put in a decent knock of 556 themselves, but England took full advantage of the eminently playable pitch and scored for fun.
Joe Root and Harry Brook were the biggest scorers, with 262 and 317 respectively, and they shared a massive partnership of 454 – the fourth-highest ever. But how does England’s ludicrously impressive total stack up against the best of all time in Test match cricket?
Highest Test Match Score – Team Runs in an Innings
Out of all the Test matches in the history of cricket, sides have managed to score more than 750 runs in a single innings on just 11 occasions (at the time of writing, at least). And of all the great Test sides across the eras, it might surprise a few people that the side to have made the biggest total ever is not Australia, England or the West Indies… but Sri Lanka.
Team | Score | Match Date | Overs | Run Rate | Innings of Test | Opponent | Ground |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sri Lanka | 952/6d | 2 Aug 1997 | 271 | 3.51 | 2 | India | Colombo (RPS) |
England | 903/7d | 20 Aug 1938 | 335.2 | 2.69 | 1 | Australia | The Oval |
England | 849 | 3 Apr 1930 | 258.2 | 3.28 | 1 | West Indies | Kingston |
England | 823/7d | 7 Oct 2024 | 150 | 5.48 | 2 | Pakistan | Multan |
West Indies | 790/3d | 26 Feb 1958 | 208.1 | 3.79 | 2 | Pakistan | Kingston |
Pakistan | 765/6d | 21 Feb 2009 | 248.5 | 3.07 | 2 | Sri Lanka | Karachi |
Sri Lanka | 760/7d | 16 Nov 2009 | 202.4 | 3.75 | 2 | India | Ahmedabad |
India | 759/7d | 16 Dec 2016 | 190.4 | 3.98 | 2 | England | Chennai |
Australia | 758/8d | 11 Jun 1955 | 245.4 | 3.08 | 2 | West Indies | Kingston |
Sri Lanka | 756/5d | 27 Jul 2006 | 185.1 | 4.08 | 2 | South Africa | Colombo (SSC) |
West Indies | 751/5d | 10 Apr 2004 | 202 | 3.71 | 1 | England | St John’s |
Let’s take a closer look at the top five in our list and find out who the main players were who helped amass such impressive totals.
Sri Lanka – 952/6d v India – 2 Aug 1997
No side has yet made 1,000 in a single innings, but Sri Lanka were not too far away when they declared on 952/6 against India in August 1997. Had they not run out of time on the final day of the match – that was ultimately drawn – Sri Lanka might have surpassed 1,000 runs.
India didn’t make a bad start to the match by any means and totted up a grand total of 537/8 before declaring. Sri Lanka, though, took things to another level, thanks in no small part to opener Sanath Jayasuriya who hammered 340 runs from 578 balls. The other centurions in the innings were Roshan Mahanama (with 225 runs from 561 balls) and Aravinda de Silva (126 from 211 balls).
England – 903/7d v Australia – 20 Aug 1938
We have to go a long way back to find the second-highest Test innings score. And what a score it was! Given that the rivalry with the Aussies was already somewhat feisty (after the bodyline Ashes series of 1932/33), this must have been a sweet triumph for the England players and fans.
The margin of victory – an innings and 579 runs – is still the greatest ever, and one of the game’s true legends was at the heart of it: Sir Leonard Hutton. The inimitable Yorkshireman took no prisoners as he played his way to a total of 364 runs (then a world record) from 847 balls. Another Yorkshireman, Maurice Leyland, chipped in with a solid score of 187 before he was run out, while Nottinghamshire’s Joe Hardstaff finished on 169 not out.
England – 849 v West Indies – 3 Apr 1930
It’s another big score on the board for a 1930s England team, this time against West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. Surrey batsman Andy Sandham was the one who did most of the damage for England as he scored the first triple-century in Test cricket, finishing on 325 from 640 balls. Wicket-keeper Les Ames added another 149 runs from just 174 balls as England marched towards what became, at the time, the greatest Test match score ever.
Unfortunately for England, despite bowling their opponents out for just 286 in their first innings and adding another 272/9 before declaring in their second innings, West Indies managed to hold on for a draw. The home side scored 408 runs for the loss of five wickets, which was the second-highest fourth-innings total at the time.
England – 823/7d v Pakistan – 7 Oct 2024
And so we come to England’s recent batting brilliance. Thanks mainly to Yorkshire’s brilliant duo Root and Brook, England were unstoppable against Pakistan in Multan and ended up winning by an innings and 47 runs. Much has since been made about the state of the pitch, which many pundits suggested was simply not up the standard expected for Test matches. But we don’t expect the high-scoring Englishmen to be complaining too loudly about it!
West Indies – 790/3d – 26 Feb 1958
Completing the top five, we have West Indies who amassed an impressive total of 790/3 declared in their second innings against Pakistan in 1958. This was before the great Windies sides of the 1970s and 80s, but one of the game’s greats was already making an impression: Sir Garfield Sobers. His knock of 365 not out was a world record at the time and in fact lasted more than 30 years (until fellow West Indies superstar Brian Lara scored his record-breaking 375 against England in Antigua). Opener Sir Conrad Hunte also scored highly, with 260 runs on the board when he got run out. West Indies won by an innings and 174 runs.
Fewest Runs in an Innings
Just to show the flipside of this hitherto positive coin, let’s take a brief look at the most abysmal team failures in Test match cricketing history. Here are the teams who managed to score fewer than 40 runs in a completed Test match innings… often against England!
Team | Score | Match Date | Opponents | Innings of Match | Ground | Overs | Run Rate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
New Zealand | 26 | 25 Mar 1955 | England | 3 | Auckland | 27 | 0.96 |
South Africa | 30 | 13 Feb 1896 | England | 4 | Gqeberha | 18.4 | 1.91 |
South Africa | 30 | 14 Jun 1924 | England | 2 | Birmingham | 12.3 | 2.4 |
South Africa | 35 | 1 Apr 1899 | England | 4 | Cape Town | 22.4×5 | 1.84 |
South Africa | 36 | 12 Feb 1932 | Australia | 1 | Melbourne | 23.2 | 1.54 |
Australia | 36 | 29 May 1902 | England | 2 | Birmingham | 23 | 1.56 |
India | 36 | 17 Dec 2020 | Australia | 3 | Adelaide | 21.2 | 1.68 |
Ireland | 38 | 24 Jul 2019 | England | 4 | Lord’s | 15.4 | 2.42 |