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=Totals=
==First innings totals: a declining trend==
[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/news/in-numbers-trend-shows-that-on-average-test-scores-are-coming-down/articleshow/88736145.cms     In numbers: Trend shows that on average Test scores  are coming down /TIMESOFINDIA.COM /   Stats Courtesy: Rajesh Kumar/ Jan 6, 2022] 

 
One trend that has emerged is that Test scores
overall seem to be going down in the first
innings.

Are the days of constant 400, 500 plus scores
now history then?
Let's take a look at some numbers, taking 400
plus totals as the benchmark.

From 1990 to 2000, there were a total of 190
instances of both teams scoring 400 plus totals
in the first innings of a Test match. 

That figure
went up to 337 in the next decade, from 2001 to
2010.

However, from 2011 to 2021 that figure, of both
teams posting 400 plus totals in the first innings
of a Test match went down to 258.
 
Of course where the Test match is being played
is also of supreme importance. 

In ''' South Africa ''' 
for instance a target of 200-250 is also
sometimes not an easy one to achieve in the
fourth innings of a match.

At the Wanderers for example, the four highest
successful run chases have been:

2011: 310/8 by Australia vs =See also=

2006: 294/8 by Australia vs =See also=

2006: 220/6 by SA v NZ

1999: 164/6 by SA v West Indies

Let's take the 2022 ''' Ashes '''  series as an
example.

In the first  three completed Tests, Australia
scored 400 plus in two of their first innings (425
in Brisbane and 473-9 declared in Adelaide).
England though in response did not manage to
put up a single 400 plus score in any of their
first innings. Their highest score in fact was 236
(Adelaide Test, first innings).

Overall, there seem to be more instances of
teams struggling to put up big scores in their
first innings on an average.

These numbers will further reflect that.

From 1990 to 2000, the number of below 200
first innings scores by both teams stood at 138
instances.

In the next decade, from 2001 to 2010, that
number went up to 154.

And from 2011 to 2021, the instances of both
teams scoring less than 200 in the first innings
of a Test match went up further to 161.

Traditionally, the subcontinent and the
Caribbean have been where mammoth first
innings scores have been posted. 

Out of the top
10 highest innings totals in the history of Test
cricket, as many as 9 were scored either in India,
Sri Lanka, Pakistan or the Caribbean. 

''' The highest Test innings ''' [in the history of cricket, till Dec 2021], has been
a mammoth 952-6 declared by Sri Lanka in their
first innings (second innings of the match) of
the Colombo Test vs India in 1997.

The 61st highest innings total in Test cricket
history is 650-6 declared by Australia against the
West Indies in Bridgetown in 1965.

From 2010 to [Dec 2021], on this list of 61 of the highest
Test innings totals of all time, there have been
only 12 instances of scores that have been in
excess of Australia's 650-6 declared in 1965.

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