Warwickshire vs Durham
1994-06-06
Just seven weeks after his Test world-record 375, Brian Lara scored an unbeaten 501 for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston, breaking Hanif Mohammad's 499 from 1959 to register the highest individual score in first-class history. The innings came off only 427 balls and contained 62 fours and 10 sixes.
Karachi vs Bahawalpur
1959-01-11
On 11 January 1959, Hanif Mohammad scored 499 for Karachi against Bahawalpur in a Quaid-e-Azam Trophy semi-final, surpassing Don Bradman's first-class record of 452 not out. He was run out attempting his 500th run after a scoreboard miscount left him believing he was on 496 with two balls remaining; the record stood for 35 years until Brian Lara's 501 in 1994.
New South Wales v South Australia
1932-02-04
On 4 February 1932 Tim Wall took 10 for 36 in 12.4 overs against New South Wales at the SCG, one of only a handful of first-class instances of all ten wickets in Australia and the only one in the history of the Sheffield Shield. The figures, achieved on a damaged pitch, remain a record in the competition.
New South Wales v Victoria
1929-01-11
Two months after his disappointing Test debut at Brisbane, Don Bradman made 340 not out for New South Wales against Victoria at the Sydney Cricket Ground in January 1929 — at the time the highest individual score made at the SCG, and a single innings that doubled his Test team's confidence in him.
Australians v Nottinghamshire
1921-06-25
Between lunch on a June Saturday and tea on the Monday after, Charlie Macartney made 345 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge — for almost two decades a world record for runs scored by a batsman in a single day, and an innings that announced the man Sydneysiders called the 'Governor-General' to the wider cricket world.
Yorkshire, England
1906-08-30
In 1906 Yorkshire's George Hirst scored 2,385 first-class runs at 45.86 and took 208 wickets at 16.50 — a 'double-double' (2,000 runs and 200 wickets) that no cricketer before or since has achieved in a single season. Wisden called it 'a feat unique in the history of the game' and it remains so 120 years on.
Middlesex CCC
1899-09-15
In the 1899 first-class season Albert Trott scored 1,175 runs and took 239 wickets for Middlesex and the various invitational sides he played for. He became, and remains, the only cricketer to do a 1,000-run / 200-wicket double in a single first-class season — a feat he would repeat in 1900. The same summer he hit the only six ever to clear the Lord's pavilion. Wisden made him a Cricketer of the Year in 1899.
Sussex CCC and others
1899-08-31
In the 1899 first-class season K.S. Ranjitsinhji scored 3,159 runs at 63.18 — the first batsman ever to pass 3,000 first-class runs in a single season. Sussex, captained by him, finished fifth in the Championship for their highest-ever placing to that point. The 3,000-run mark was retro-engineered as a benchmark for the era; only ten more batsmen have ever passed it, and none in the last 65 years.
Lancashire v Somerset
1895-07-15
On 15-16 July 1895, the 23-year-old Archie MacLaren batted across two days at Taunton to score 424 — the first quadruple century in first-class cricket history and the highest individual first-class score the game had seen. He surpassed W.G. Grace's 1876 mark of 344, batted 470 minutes, hit 62 fours and a six, and held the world record for 28 years until Bill Ponsford's 429 in 1923. The score remained the highest in English first-class cricket until 1994.
Sussex vs Epsom
1817-07-04
Between 2 and 5 July 1817 at the new Lord's, the Surrey-born professional William Lambert scored 107 not out and 157 for Sussex against Epsom — the first batsman known to have made two centuries in the same match. Sussex won by 427 runs. Three weeks later Lambert was banned from Lord's for match-fixing and never played a senior match again. The Sussex v Epsom innings, made on a low-scoring underarm pitch by a man at the height of his powers, stood as the only instance of two centuries in a match for almost seventy years.