Highest Ashes Run Chase In Cricket History

Dixit Bhargav
|PublishedJun 22, 2023

Highest Ashes Run Chase In Cricket History

Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins celebrate a memorable win. Photo Courtesy: ICC Twitter

Australia defeating England by 2 wickets in a tense finish at the Edgbaston earlier this week wasn’t the highest Ashes run chase in the history of this marquee rivalry. However, it surely was one of the highest targets ever achieved in an Ashes series.

Australia, who sealed a 281-run chase in the dying moments of the match, pulled off the joint second-highest run-chase in Birmingham Tests. That said, it was the ninth-highest run-chase in the rich history of Ashes.

Out of as many as 357 Test matches played between England and Australia till date, a total of 94 have been won by a team batting successfully in the fourth innings. While Australia have been victorious on 56 occasions, England have won the remaining 38 matches.

Speaking of the highest successful run-chase in an Ashes fixture, Australia hold the record for chasing down a 404-run target 75 years ago. Interestingly, both the teams have five entries in the below mentioned top 10 Ashes run-chases.

While the first two run-chases have come in Leeds, the city has a total of three mentions in this table. On the contrary, five out of these 10 targets have been achieved in Melbourne.

In addition to the latest run-chase, current England captain Ben Stokes‘ heroics at Headingley four years ago and former England batter Mark Butcher’s glorious century in 2001 are the only three among the Top 10 targets to be achieved in this century. Apart from these three, one has to dive deep down into the past to find the next run-chase as per reverse chronology.

Furthermore, it is worth of a mention that 400+ and 300+ targets have been achieved once and five times respectively.