According to Guinness World Records, the highest number of runs scored off a single over, albeit under contrived circumstances, was 77. In February, 1990, Wellington faced Canterbury in a three-day Shell Trophy match at Lancaster Park, Christchurch, needing to win to secure New Zealand’s domestic first-class cricket championship. At tea on the third and final day, Canterbury were showing little interest in chasing the 291 runs they needed to win the match, which looked to be heading for a draw.
However, Wellington coach John Morrison, captain Ervine McSweeney and batsman Bert Vance concocted a plan whereby they might be able to win the match after all. According to Morrison, they agreed that they would attempt to bowl the opposition out but, failing that, concede enough runs to tempt them into trying to win the match in the final over. In the penultimate over, Vance, who had not previously bowled in the match, came on to bowl, as agreed.
As Morrison put it, ‘It’s fair to say Bert embraced the instruction rather more than we imagined.’ Of his first 17 deliveries, just one was legitimate. Otherwise, Vance deliberately overstepped the popping crease, time and time, and sent down a series of inviting full tosses, which the Canterbury batsmen gleefully dispatched to boundaries all around the ground. Lee Germon, batting at number eight, scored 160 not out, including 16 fours and eight sixes. In a farcical climax, no-one really knew what the score was and, despite Canterbury needing just two runs off the last ball to win, the match ended in an thoroughly confusing draw. For the record, Wellington won the Shell Trophy in any case.
The longest innings in the history of men’s Test match was played by Pakistani opening batsman Hanif Mohammad – the original ‘Little Master’ – during the first Test of the Pakistan tour of West Indies at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados between January 17 and January 23, 1958. In the six-day match, West Indies won the toss and elected to bat, racking up 579 for 9 declared, with Everton Weekes top-scoring with 197. In reply, Pakistan managed just 106 all out, losing their last five wickets for 24 runs, and West Indies enforced the follow-on.
Having been clean bowled by Eric Atkinson – who was making his Test debut, alongside older brother Denis – for 17 in the first innings, Hanif Mohammad returned to the crease later on the third day and stayed there for much of the remainder of the match . He was 161 not out at close of play on the fourth day, 251 not out at close of play on the fifth and finally caught at the wicket off the bowling of Denis Atkinson on the sixth, having scored 337 runs.
All told, his innings last 970 minutes, or 16 hours and 10 minutes, and left his team on 626-6. Pakistan scored another 31 runs before declaring their second innings at 657 for 8, leaving West Indies with precious little time to score the 185 runs they needed for victory. Indeed, opening batsmen Conrad Hunte and Rohan Kanhai managed just 28 runs off the 11 overs they faced and, not altogether surprisingly, the match ended in a draw.
For all his time at the crease, Hanif Mohammad does not hold the record for the most runs in a Test match innings. At the time, that record was held by Sir Leonard Hutton, who scored 364 for England against Australia at the Oval in August, 1938; it is currently held by Brian Lara, who scored 400 not out for West Indies against England at Antigua Recreation Ground in April, 2004.
The highest team score in the history of men’s Test cricket was 952 for 6 declared, scored by Sri Lanka in the one and only innings of the drawn first Test of the India tour of Sri Lanka at R. Premadasa Stadiu, Colombo between August 4 and August 6, 1997. India won the toss and elected to bat first, with captain Sachin Tendulkar contributing 143 to a first innings total of 537 for 8 declared.
However, Sri Lanka batted for the remaining three days plus to achieve their world record total. Opening batsman Marvan Attapatu was caught at the wicket off Nilesh Kulkarni – bowling his first ball in Test cricket – late on the second day but, thereafter, it was all one-way traffic. Sanath Jayasuriya (340) and Roshan Mahanama (225) put on 576 for the second wicket, while Aravinda de Silva (126) also reached three figures as India toiled through 271 overs, of which Kulkarni and fellow spinners Rajesh Chauhan and Anil Kumble bowled 230, for collective figures of 3 for 694.
By contrast, the lowest team score in the history of men’s Test cricket was just 26 all out, scored by the home side in the second innings of the second Test of the England tour of New Zealand at Eden Park, Auckland on March 28, 1955. New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first, scoring 200 all out in their first innings, albeit having been 154 for 4 at one stage. England scored 246 all out in reply, with a captain Leonard Hutton top-scoring on 53, but in the second innings New Zealand experienced the mother and father of all collapses. Only opening batsman Bert Sutcliffe (11) reached double-figures as England needed just 27 overs to win by an innings and 20 runs.
Of course, the maximum number of wickets that any bowler can take in single innings, Test match or otherwise, is ten. In the history of Test cricket, which dates back to March 15, 1877, just three male bowlers have taken all ten wickets in an innings. The first, and most famous, of them was England off-spinner James ‘ Jim’ Laker, who took 10 for 53 in the second innings of the fourth Test against Australia at Old Trafford, Manchester in July, 1956. In what became known as ‘Laker’s Match’, the Yorkshireman had already taken 9 for 37 in the first innings, thereby finishing the match with figures of 19 for 90, which is still the record for the most wickets taken by any male bowler in a Test match.
Next on the highly select list comes Indian leg-break googly bowler Anil Kumble, who took 10 for 74 in the second innings of the second Test of the Pakistan tour of India at Feroz Shah Kotla in February, 1999. Chasing 420 to win the match, Pakistan started brightly enough, with opening batsmen Saeed Anwar and Shahid Afridi sharing a century partnership before Afridi was dismissed on 41. However, incoming batsman Ijaz Ahmed was trapped lbw first ball and, thereafter, only Saleem Malik and captain Wasim Akram, whose wicket was the last to fall, reached double figures. Pakistan were bowled out for 207, giving India victory by 212 runs.
Last, but by no means least, comes another Indian-born bowler, Ajaz Patel, a left-arm orthodox spinner by trade, who emigrated to New Zealnd with his family as a child. In December, 2021, Patel returned to his birthplace, Mumbai, and took 10 for 119 in the first innings of the second Test of the New Zealand tour of India at Wankhede Stadium. Unfortunately, unlike Laker and Kumble, his remarkable feat was in vain; in their first innings, New Zealand were skittled out for just 62, with Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin taking 4 for 8, and were eventually trounced by 372 runs,
The first player to reach 10,000 runs in Test cricket was former Indian cricketer Sunil ‘Sunny’ Gavaskar, who is generally acknowledged as one of the greatest opening batsmen of all time. Gavaskar reached the milestone of 10,000 runs in what turned out to be the penultimate Test match of his career, the fourth Test of the Pakistan tour of India, in Ahmedabad, in March, 1987.
In the first innings, having made 57, he needed just one more run to make history and did so, playing a delicate late-cut off Pakistani off-spinner Ijaz Faqih down towards third man for two. Gavaskar raised his bat in celebration as was mobbed by jubilant spectators, who invaded the pitch to congratulate him on his record-breaking achievement. When player resumed, rather anticlimactically, Gavaskar was dismissed for 63 and the match ended in a draw.
A right-handed batsman, standing just 5’5″ tall – hence his other nickname, ‘Little Master’ –Gavaskar played a total of 125 Test matches for India, including 47 as captain. He made his debut in the second Test of the India tour of West Indies, in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in March, 1971 and completed his swansong in the fifth Test of the Pakistan tour of India, in Bengaluru, in March, 1987. He played 214 innings and scored 10,122 runs, including 34 centuries – thereby setting a world record that stood for 19 years – at an average of 51.1.
Several years before reaching 10,000 runs, Gavaskar had enjoyed another red-letter day during the sixth Test of the West Indies tour of India, in Chennai, in December, 1983. In the first innings, Indian opener Anshuman Gaekwad and number three Dilip Vengsarkar were both dismissed without scoring, leaving the home side 0-2 at one stage. However, batting at number four, Gavaskar scored 236 not out – which was, at the time, an Indian Test record – and, moreover, took his number of career Test centuries to 30, one more than the previous record set by Donald Bradman.