In Test cricket, scoring 800+ runs has been dominated by England. At that moment, England’s score was 799 for 5 wickets. On the last ball of the 148th over, Brydon Carse, who came in at number nine, hit a six over long-on off Saim Ayub.
With that, an 86-year-old memory resurfaced. In 1938, in the Oval Test against Australia, England declared their first innings after scoring 903 for 7 wickets. Since then, this is the first time England surpassed 800 runs in a team total. On the fourth day of the Multan Test, Ollie Pope’s team declared their first innings at 823 for 7 wickets against Pakistan.
A team total of at least 800 has been seen four times in Test cricket. England’s name has appeared next to the score in three of those instances. England first reached a total of 800 runs in 1930. In Kingston, against the West Indies, Freddie Calthorpe’s team was all out for 849 in their first innings.
Eight years later, under the captaincy of Wally Hammond, England set a new record in the Oval Test. In that Test against Australia, for the first time, Test cricket witnessed a team score of at least 900 runs, courtesy of England.
Test cricket saw another team total of at least 900 runs. It happened 59 years after England’s innings, in 1997. In the Colombo Test, Sri Lanka declared their first innings at 952 for 6 wickets against India, which remains the highest team score in Test history to date.
