Highest Score in Test Cricket: All-Time Individual Records

Antigua, April 2004. Brian Lara has already held the world record once, lost it, and is now taking it back for good. He bats for more than 13 hours, passes his own mark of 375, and keeps going to 400 not out before West Indies finally declare. No one has got within 20 runs of it since.

All-time highest individual Test scores

Score	Batter	Match	Year
400*	Brian Lara (WI)	vs England, Antigua	2004
380	Matthew Hayden (AUS)	vs Zimbabwe, Perth	2003
375	Brian Lara (WI)	vs England, Antigua	1994
374	Mahela Jayawardene (SL)	vs South Africa, Colombo	2006
365*	Garfield Sobers (WI)	vs Pakistan, Kingston	1958
364	Len Hutton (ENG)	vs Australia, The Oval	1938
340	Sanath Jayasuriya (SL)	vs India, Colombo	1997
337	Hanif Mohammad (PAK)	vs West Indies, Bridgetown	1958
336*	Wally Hammond (ENG)	vs New Zealand, Auckland	1933
334	Don Bradman (AUS)	vs England, Leeds	1930
334	Mark Taylor (AUS)	vs Pakistan, Peshawar	1998

* = not out

Brian Lara’s 400* — what made it historic

The innings is really two records in one career. Lara set the mark at 375 in 1994, watched Matthew Hayden take it off him with 380 in 2003, then reclaimed it ten months later with 400*. Nobody else has been dismissed on their way to 400 in a Test innings, let alone reached it. It stands alone.

Garfield Sobers’ 46-year record

Before Lara, the number to beat was 365*, set by Garfield Sobers in 1958. That mark held for 36 years, until Lara broke it in 1994. Sobers, like Lara after him, finished not out — his captain declared with him still at the crease.

Why not-outs appear frequently

Look down the list and the not-outs cluster near the top. That’s not a coincidence: a captain declares to leave enough time to bowl the opposition out, and the batter piling up the runs is often still in when the innings ends. A few scores that might have gone higher were cut short by tactics rather than dismissal.

Double-centuries and the 300-run milestone

Getting past 300 in a single Test innings has happened fewer than 30 times in the sport’s history. Most came against attacks working with little help from the pitch, but grinding through 8 to 15 hours at the crease without a serious mistake takes more than favorable conditions.