5 Oldest surviving records in Test cricket

In the 140 years of Test cricket, many records were created and broken and in recent times, some records have been achieved that looked rather impossible earlier. However, there are a few records in the history that seem untouchable and have lasted the test of time for at least 60 years and any possibility of an overhaul look very unlikely at least in the near future. There are at least five major records that still hold ground well after six decades and all of them are related to Australia and England. Here are the oldest surviving records in Test cricket:

1. The highest percentage of runs in an innings:

The Charles Bannerman’s record of scoring 67.34 percentage runs of the Australian total in the first innings of the first ever Test persists as the longest surviving record with an age of 140 years. Bannerman, who opened the innings, scored 165 before retiring hurt while the team’s total was 240/7.

The Aussies added five more runs before losing the remaining wickets as Bannerman did not return to bat. The closest anyone came to Bannerman’s record was another Australia Michael Slater in 1999 also against England when he scored 66.84 percentage of his team’s 184-run total with his 123.

2. Lowest target defended successfully in the 4th innings:

England failed to chase the 85-run target in 1882 against Australia at The Oval the game is popular as Australia’s first ever Test win and the origin of the Ashes but it was also the lowest ever total a team failed to chase in the 4th innings of a Test match.

England were bowled out for 77 chasing 85 after losing the last six wickets for just 11 runs. Zimbabwe failed to chase 99 against West Indies in 2000 while Australia lost to India in 2004 while chasing 107 which are the 2nd and 3rd lowest unsuccessful chases in Test history.

3. Highest individual score on Test debut:

England’s Tip Foster made the kind of debut every budding player dreams of. The right-hander scored a brilliant 287 in his maiden Test innings in 1903 against the Aussies. After 114 years, the record is still intact as nobody came close to breaking the feat.

South Africa’s Jacques Rudolph scored an unbeaten 222 against Bangladesh in 2003 which is the 2nd highest score for any player in their debut innings. Foster made 19 runs in the 2nd innings of his debut Test and accumulated another 294 runs in his career across he t12 innings he batted in the 7 matches after the debut.

4. Two hat-tricks in the same Test match:

Australia’s Jimmy Matthews took a hat-trick in each of the South African innings in 1912 at Manchester and thus becoming the first and the only player till date with two hat-tricks in a Test match. Overall, there are eight players including Matthews who bagged two hat-tricks in a first-class match with Mitchell Starc recently becoming the first to do so in the Sheffield Shield and the first player to do so in FC cricket in the last 40 years.

5. 300 runs in a single day by a batsman:

In 1930, Sir Donald Bradman recorded the 2nd triple century in Test cricket with a 334-run knock against England and surpassing Andy Sandham’s 325 which was scored a couple of months ago. Bradman got his runs a great pace as he put together 309 runs on the first day of the Test match at Leeds against England. Thus Bradman became the first player to score 300 runs in a single day in Test cricket and is still the only one.

Later in 1933, England’s Wally Hammond was on the verge of breaking the record as he managed 295 runs in a single day against New Zealand while India’s Virender Sehwag scored 284 runs in a day against Sri Lanka in 2009 but failed to reach the magical mark.