What is the highest total for a team losing by an innings in a Test?
Highest Score by a Team Losing by an Innings:
Highest total for a team losing
Highest total for a team losing Pakistan’s 556 against England in Multan is the highest total ever scored by a team that still lost by an innings. The previous record was set recently when Ireland scored 492 in Galle in April 2023 but lost by an innings and 10 runs after Sri Lanka declared at 704 for 3.
Only four other higher Test totals have not been enough to avoid defeat. The highest remains Bangladesh’s 595 for 8 declared against New Zealand in Wellington in January 2017. Australia scored 586 against England in Sydney in December 1894 but narrowly lost, even though England had to follow on. Pakistan posted 579 against England in Rawalpindi in December 2022 but lost, and they also faced defeat after making 574 for 8 declared against Australia in Melbourne in the 1972-73 series.
This list includes 19 occasions when a team has scored 500 or more runs but still failed to avoid defeat in a Test match. Remarkably, this was the third time in the current century that a team was bowled out for exactly 556 in a Test match, and all three instances ended in defeat Highest total for a team losing.
The highest total in all first-class cricket to result in an innings defeat was Leicestershire’s 584 in a County Championship match at Grace Road in July 2022. Glamorgan responded with 795 for 5, then bowled Leicestershire out for 183 to secure the win.
Six Bowlers Conceding 100+ Runs in an Innings:
Six Pakistan bowlers conceded over 100 runs in England’s mammoth total of 823 for 7 in Multan. This has only happened once before in Test cricket, when six Zimbabwean bowlers gave up 100 or more runs as Sri Lanka piled on 713 for 3 declared in Bulawayo in May 2004. A close call happened in Kingston in June 1955 when five West Indians conceded 100+ runs in Australia’s total of 758 for 8 declared, while Garry Sobers narrowly missed the century mark, finishing with 1 for 99 Highest total for a team losing.
Harry Brook’s Triple-Century:
Despite being 25 years old, Harry Brook ranks relatively low on the list of the youngest players to score a Test triple-century. Ten of the 28 players who have achieved this feat were younger when they made their first triple-hundred. The youngest of all was Garry Sobers, who was just 21 years old when he made 365 not out against Pakistan in Kingston in early 1958. Don Bradman was also 21 but about three months older when he hit 304 for Australia against England at Headingley in July 1930.
The only Englishman younger than Brook to score a triple-century was Len Hutton, who was 22 when he amassed 364 against Australia at The Oval in August 1938.
England also holds the distinction of having the two oldest players to score a Test triple-century. Andy Sandham was almost 40 when he made 325 (the first-ever triple-century in Test cricket) against West Indies in Kingston in April 1930. Graham Gooch was 37 when he cracked 333 against India at Lord’s in July 1990.
Brydon Carse’s Six:
Brydon Carse got off the mark in Test cricket by hitting a six off Saim Ayub in Multan, becoming the 15th player to start his Test career with a six Highest total for a team losing, and the first to do so for England. Carse hit the six off the second ball he faced in Test cricket. The only player to hit the first ball he ever faced in a Test for six was New Zealand’s Mark Craig, off West Indies’ Sulieman Benn in Kingston in June 2014. India’s Rishabh Pant also got off the mark with a second-ball six on debut against England’s Adil Rashid at Trent Bridge in August 2018.
India’s 297 in a T20 International:
India’s remarkable total of 297 for 6 in Hyderabad over the weekend, which helped them secure a series sweep over Bangladesh, was the second-highest score in men’s T20 internationals. The highest total in men’s T20Is is Nepal’s 314 for 3 against Mongolia (who were bowled out for 41) in the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, in September 2023 ind vs ban.
The previous highest total in a match between Test-playing nations was Afghanistan’s 278 for 3 against Ireland in Dehradun in 2019.
In women’s T20Is, there have been five totals exceeding 300. The highest score is an extraordinary 427 for 1 by Argentina against Chile in Buenos Aires in October 2023. Just two days later, Argentina recorded another massive total of 333 for 1 against Chile. The highest total in a match between two Test-playing nations is England’s 250 for 3 against South Africa in Taunton in June 2018 Highest total for a team losing lisalavoie.