Ranji run chase

The Ranji Trophy final is on. Kerala, looking for their first title, are 300/6 in reply to Vidarbha’s 379 as I type. I am reminded of the highest successful run-chase in first-class cricket history.

Ah, the successful run-chase. Bread and butter for the broadcast statistician. It is perhaps the most used graphic in TV cricket broadcasts (I will let someone else crunch those numbers to determine the veracity of this). The fourth innings chase starts and we want to know what the highest successful chase is – overall, by this team, against that team, at this venue, etc. (Not yet, “… on a Tuesday in March”, but maybe one day). Those of us who pay a bit of attention will know that the highest successful run chase in the fourth innings of a Test is 418-7 by West Indies v Australia at St John's in 2003. The fewer amongst us who pay even more attention may well know that the first-class equivalent is 541-7 by West Zone v South Zone at Hyderabad in 2010. This was threatened in the extraordinary tied match at Cheltenham last year when Glamorgan were all out for 592. When I see the fourth innings graphic appear, a part of me wishes that the England team didn’t have to catch the boat back in March 1939. At 654-5 they would have been strong favourites to reach the 696 to win the famous Timeless Test against South Africa in Durban, potentially rendering the fourth innings graphic pointless.

However, there is a lesser known run-chase that surpasses all of these: