Top five biggest innings-defeat in Test cricket

Jul 25, 2016 at 7:05 PM

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Top five biggest innings-defeat in Test cricket

We have seen many high level of competitions in cricket. Besides that we have seen many contests where one team has completely outplayed the opposition to register victories. Even more surprising is the fact that such cases have been witnessed even in contests between evenly matched teams who were expected to go toe to toe with each other.

Here we see top five list for the biggest innings-defeat in Test cricket.

1. England vs Australia at the Oval, London (20-24 August 1938)
Margin: Innings & 579 runs

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The fifth and final Test of the 1938 Ashes series turned out to be a historic one. Billed as the battle between the two skippers – England’s Wally Hammond and Australia’s Don Bradman – the legendary Australian cricketer was left helpless in this match as he couldn’t bat in either innings with an ankle injury. Batting first, England scored a mammoth 903 runs in 335 overs with opener Len Hutton scoring the then highest Test score of 364.  In the absence of Bradman Australian side could only muster 201 and 123 in the first and second innings respectively to give England what is, till date, the biggest ever victory margin, in the history of Test cricket.

2. Australia vs South Africa at Johannesburg (22-24 February 2002)

Margin: Innings & 360 runs

206705.5South Africa were in for a huge shock as Australia completely decimated them within three days to take a 1-0 lead in the 3-match series.  Mathew Hayden and Damien Martyn scored centuries while Adam Gilchrist piled on the misery for the hosts with a double century as Australia posted a huge first innings total of 652. Aussie bowling unit ensured that Australia had the match wrapped up within three days. Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne led the way with eight and six wickets respectively as the Proteas could only score 159 in the first innings and 133 in the second.

3. West Indies vs India at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata (December 31, 1958 – January 4, 1959)
Margin: Innings & 336 runs

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Coming to Kolkata on the back of a 203-run loss against the visitors, India suffered yet another embarrassing loss at Eden Gardens as Rohan Kanhai, Basil Butcher and Gary sobers scored big centuries for the West Indies who decided to bat first after winning the toss. Not a single Indian player stood out with either bat or ball as the hosts could only put up 124 runs in their first innings – a massive 490 runs short of the West Indian total. Asked to bat again, the home side didn’t fare much better this time around either as the second innings also closed out with just 154 runs on the board.

4. Australia vs England at Brisbane (November 29 – December 4, 1946)

Margin: Innings and 332 runs

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The Australian side captained by the legendary Sir Donald Bradman won the toss and decided to bat first, Bradman led from the front with a brilliant knock of 187 as the home side piled on 645 runs in the first innings.The Australian pace attack led by express speedster Keith Miller, who picked up seven wickets in the first innings and Ernie Toshack, who picked up six in the second, made light work of the English batsmen as they could muster only 141 and 172 in their two innings.

5 Pakistan vs New Zealand at Lahore (1-3 May 2002)
Margin: Innings and 324 runs

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The match is best remembered for Shoaib Akhtar’s devastating spell of fast bowling which saw him pick up six wickets conceding just 11 runs. Batting first, Pakistan were given a breezy start by opener Imran Nazir who made 127 before Inzamam took the stage and defied the New Zealand bowlers into submission. His marathon knock lasted nearly 10 hours and he was the last man to be dismissed as the Pakistan innings was finally brought to a close at 643.

Akhtar then ripped through the opposition top order with five of six wickets cleaning up the stumps. Despite the Rawalpindi Express not bowling a single delivery in the second innings, the Black Caps were not able to avoid an innings defeat – a big one at that – as the rest of the Pakistani bowlers shared the spoils as New Zealand’s second innings produced 246 runs.

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