The highest sum of high scores

A reader who calls himself Warks had asked Steven this question: If you totaled the career-best scores of all the players of a team in a match, which XI would have the highest aggregate? His bet was the Australian team for the fifth Ashes Test in 2001, though he calculated the aggregate - 2034 - based on eventual career bests. For example, Jason Gillespie hadn't scored his 201* in 2001 (his best was 46) but it's been included in the total. So we dug up a list of XIs with the highest aggregate of career-best scores, and we did it his way, as well as ours - which is a total of best scores at that point in time.

Warks' guess was 298 runs off the mark. The highest aggregate of career bests for a team to take the field does not belong to a country, but to the ICC-assembled World XI in the Super Test against Australia in 2005. They had Brian Lara, whose 400 not out is a world record, two triple-centurions in Inzamam-ul-Haq and Virender Sehwag, two double-centurions in Graeme Smith and Rahul Dravid, while Jacques Kallis, Andrew Flintoff, Mark Boucher and Daniel Vettori all had centuries. Even Muttiah Muralitharan had a half-century to boast about, while Steve Harmison's best was 49 not out. They aggregated 2332 in all.

At the time of the Super Test, however, not all the members of the World XI had made the high scores they now possess. Sehwag's best was 309 and not 319; Vettori's was 137 not out and not 140, while Harmison's high was 42. The aggregate of 2312 at the time was 340 runs more than the next highest total of career-best scores in a match. It didn't count for much, though, for Australia won the Super Test by 210 runs.

The team that secured India's first Test victory in Perth had an aggregate high score of 1972 - the most for any country at the time of a match. Sehwag had a triple; Dravid, Laxman, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Jaffer possessed doubles; Dhoni, Kumble and Pathan had hundreds; and RP Singh's and Ishant Sharma's best totaled 53. Variations of the same side occupy slots 2 to 8 in the table above, after which Australia and Sri Lanka come into the picture.

A Sri Lankan XI comprising Jayawardene, Jayasuriya, Sangakkara, Atapattu, Samaraweera, Tillakaratne, Dilshan, Vaas, Muralitharan, and a couple of other variables now has the highest aggregate of individual scores at any stage of the player's career. The first Australian side that appears in the table below is the one that lost to West Indies at the MCG in 1996. The players involved ended their careers with high scores that totaled 2312 runs. But how many would have bet in 1996 on Glenn McGrath ever making a half-century? His average at the time was 3.35.

The ICC's World XI, India and the Asia XI top the charts in ODIs. The largest sum of the ODI high scores of players in a team is 1306 - by the World XI in the second Super Series ODI against Australia in Melbourne. That team, however, effectively had 12 people because of the now-defunct Super-sub rule.

The first national team to appear in the table is India's XI against South Africa in Hyderabad in 2005. The aggregate of their high scores was 1270. There were seven centurions, Ajit Agarkar and Pathan who had half-centuries, while Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik and RP singh had bests of 46, 32* and 9*.

New Zealand XIs rank prominently in the list of teams with the largest sum of high scores made at any point in a career. The players that took on Australia in the first and second Chappell-Hadlee ODIs in 2005-06 now have high scores that aggregate 1401, second to only the World XI teams.

If there's a particular List you would like to see, email us with your comments and suggestions.