Pakistan vs Australia
1998-10-16
On October 16, 1998, Australian captain Mark Taylor finished day two of the Peshawar Test on 334 not out — equalling Don Bradman's highest Australian Test score. The next morning he declared without batting on, choosing the team's chances of victory over the chance to break Bradman's record alone.
Sri Lanka vs India
1997-08-06
On August 6, 1997 at Colombo's R Premadasa Stadium, Sri Lanka declared at 952 for 6 — the highest team total in Test history. Sanath Jayasuriya made 340; Roshan Mahanama 225. Their second-wicket partnership of 576 was a then-Test world record. The Test was drawn.
West Indies vs England
1994-04-18
On April 18, 1994, Brian Lara hooked Chris Lewis to the leg-side boundary to move from 365 to 375, breaking Sir Garfield Sobers' Test batting record that had stood since 1958. The 24-year-old left-hander batted nearly 13 hours and faced 538 deliveries before edging Andy Caddick to wicketkeeper Jack Russell.
India vs Sri Lanka
1994-02-08
On February 8, 1994 at Motera, Kapil Dev had Hashan Tillakaratne caught at slip by Sanjay Manjrekar to claim his 432nd Test wicket and pass Sir Richard Hadlee for the all-time Test wicket-taking record. He was 35; he had been chasing the record for two seasons.
West Indies vs Pakistan
1958-03-01
On 1 March 1958 at Sabina Park, the 21-year-old Garry Sobers turned his maiden Test century into 365 not out against Pakistan, beating Len Hutton's 364 from the 1938 Oval Test by a single run. Sobers batted for 10 hours and 14 minutes and added 446 for the second wicket with Conrad Hunte (260). The record stood for 36 years until Brian Lara's 375 in 1994.
England v Australia
1948-07-27
On the final day of the Headingley Test of 1948, Australia were set 404 in 345 minutes on a worn fifth-day pitch — a target no side in the history of Test cricket had ever chased. Bradman (173 not out) and Arthur Morris (182) put on 301 in 217 minutes, often against three England spinners and two erratic part-timers used because Yardley wanted a result. Australia won by seven wickets with 12 minutes to spare. It remained the highest successful fourth-innings chase in Test cricket for 28 years and was Bradman's last Test century.
England v Australia
1938-08-20
The fifth and timeless Test of the 1938 Ashes at The Oval saw England score 903 for 7 declared — then the highest total in Test cricket — including Len Hutton's 364, the new world Test record. Australia, with Bradman injured and McCabe absent, replied with 201 and 123 to lose by an innings and 579 runs, the largest Test margin ever. The series finished 1-1 with two draws; Australia retained the Ashes by virtue of the previous series result.
England, South Africa
1907-07-30
On a rain-affected pitch at Headingley, the Kent left-arm spinner Colin Blythe took 8 for 59 and 7 for 40 — match figures of 15 for 99 — to bowl England to a 53-run win over South Africa in the second Test of 1907. It was Blythe's only Test five-wicket haul in a Test won by England, and the high point of his Test career.
Australia, England
1904-03-07
Hugh Trumble took 7 for 28 in his last Test innings, including a hat-trick of Bosanquet, Plum Warner and Dick Lilley, as Australia beat England by 218 runs at the MCG in March 1904. The hat-trick was Trumble's second in Tests (the first being against England at the same ground in 1902); he was the first man to take two Test hat-tricks. Australia won the dead rubber but lost the series 3-2.
Australia, England, South Africa
1902-08-13
South Australian left-hander Clem Hill, in 1902, scored 1,061 Test runs across the Ashes series in England and the immediately following series in South Africa — becoming the first batsman to make 1,000 Test runs in a calendar year. The record was not equalled until Don Bradman's 1948.
Australia v England
1898-03-04
On 4 March 1898, in the dead-rubber Fifth Test at Sydney, Australia's South Australian opener Joe Darling reached his Test hundred in 91 minutes — at the time the fastest Test century in cricket. He went on to 160 in 165 minutes with 30 boundaries. By the end of the series Darling had become the first player to score 500 runs in an Ashes series and the first to score three hundreds in any series. Within fifteen months he was Australia's captain.
South Africa v England
1896-03-02
On 2 March 1896 at the Old Wanderers in Johannesburg, Surrey's George Lohmann took 9 for 28 in 14.2 four-ball overs as South Africa were bowled out for 197 in their first innings. It was the first nine-wicket innings haul in Test cricket and stood as the best Test bowling figures in the world for sixty years until Jim Laker's 10 for 53 at Old Trafford in 1956. Lohmann would finish the series with 35 wickets at 5.80, still the highest tally in any three-Test series.
Australia v England
1895-03-06
Across the five Tests of the 1894-95 Ashes, George Giffen — Australia's captain, opening bowler and number-three batsman — scored 475 runs at 52.78 and took 34 wickets at 24.12. The combined haul is still, 130 years later, the best all-round performance in any Test series in cricket history. Australia lost the rubber 2-3, but Giffen's series average has never been matched.
South Africa v England
1889-03-25
On 25-26 March 1889 at Newlands, Lancashire's Johnny Briggs took 7 for 17 and 8 for 11 against South Africa — match figures of 15 for 28, of which 14 were bowled and one lbw. It set a new Test record for match wickets that lasted until SF Barnes in 1913, and remains one of the most economical 15-wicket hauls in any form of cricket.
England v Australia
1888-07-17
On 17 July 1888, the second day of the first Test at Lord's, 27 wickets fell — a single-day Test record that has stood for 138 years. England were dismissed for 53 in 55 minutes, Australia for 60, England for 62 — three full innings inside one day's play, on a Lord's pitch baked then drenched. Australia won the match by 61 runs.
England v Australia
1884-08-12
On 11-12 August 1884, Australia's captain Billy Murdoch became the first man to score a double century in Test cricket — 211 against England at The Oval, in 525 minutes off 525 deliveries with 24 fours. Australia made 551, then a Test record. England, in desperation, used all eleven players as bowlers; the wicketkeeper Hon Alfred Lyttelton, bowling underhand lobs with his pads on, finished with the best figures, 4 for 19.
England v Australia
1884-08-13
Sent in at number 10 to register a protest at the batting order, Surrey amateur Walter Read responded by hammering 117 off 155 balls in 113 minutes — the only Test century by a number 10 batsman, set in 1884 and not equalled in 142 years. With William Scotton blocking from the other end, the pair added 151 to save England from defeat against Murdoch's Australians.
England v Australia
1882-08-29
Fred 'The Demon' Spofforth took 7 for 46 and 7 for 44 at The Oval in August 1882, match figures of 14 for 90 that bowled Australia to a 7-run win and gave birth to the Ashes legend. The second-innings spell — bowled in tandem with Harry Boyle — broke an England chase of just 85 and stood as the best match analysis in Test cricket for 31 years.