Test cricket: all-time highest successful 4th innings run chases

As of December 2023, the highest successful fourth innings run chase of all time in test cricket belongs to the West Indies - in 2003, the team chased down Australia's target of 418 runs for the loss of seven wickets thanks to centuries from Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. High run chases in the fourth and final innings of a cricket test match are notoriously difficult given the time constraints and deteriorating pitch.

The challenge of test cricket

As the game of cricket has evolved to include new formats such as One Day Internationals and T20s, the test match format remains the sport’s ultimate challenge. Fittingly named, test match cricket demands technical skill, strategy, and mental fortitude over the five days in which it can take place. It also often requires multiple players to contribute to a team’s success, with individual heroics rarely being enough to win a test match. To illustrate this, only one batsman in the list of the highest individual batting scores in a fourth innings, Kyle Mayers of the West Indies who scored 210 not out against Bangladesh in 2021, was part of a leading fourth innings run chase.

Have 21st-century cricket pitches become more batter-friendly?

Alongside technological developments in bat construction and a larger focus on sports science, a common observation of the modern game of cricket is that pitches in the 21st century have been more batter-friendly than the century prior. This statistic supports this notion, with seven of the ten highest fourth innings run chases occurring in the 21st century. Additionally, the dominance of batsmen who played part of their careers post-2000 among the highest run scorers in men’s international test cricket gives this impression further credence.