The run machines

Two Test matches begin in the southern hemisphere on Thursday, in Perth and in Centurion, and in both those games, the visiting side from the north is entering the contest in formidable batting form. England scored totals in excess of 500 in each of the first two Ashes Tests, while India have made more than 300 in at least one innings of their previous 24 matches. This week's column is about teams that have scored above (and below) a certain level in the most consecutive Tests.

If England make more than 500 again at the WACA, they will equal their longest streak of consecutive Tests with 500-plus totals. They've managed to do it three times in a row on two occasions, both in the 21st century. Against Sri Lanka in 2002, England made 529 at Lord's, 545 at Edgbaston and 512 at Old Trafford. They drew the first game and won the next two. The next time they did it was in the Caribbean in 2009, when they made 566 in Antigua, 600 in Barbados and 546 in Trinidad. All those Tests were drawn.

So far on the tour of Australia, England have made 517 in Brisbane and 620 in Adelaide. Should they make 500-plus in Perth, they'll have a shot at equaling the longest streak of matches with such totals when they go to Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test. No team has done it in more than four consecutive matches. If England make 600 at the WACA, though, it will be the first time they are stringing together totals of 600-plus in two consecutive Tests. It's been done eight times before - by Australia, West Indies, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Australia are on a roll too, a roll of smaller scores though. They managed to scrape past 300 during the second innings of the defeat in Adelaide, which extended their present unbroken stretch of at least one 300-plus total in a Test to 26 matches . They've won 13 of those games but lost nine. Australia also hold the record - 34 consecutive Tests with 300 or more in each of them.

India's present run of 24 Tests began against Australia in Bangalore in 2008, and they've won 13 of those matches and lost only two. If India make 300 at Centurion, they'll draw level with South Africa, who had a score of 300 in at least one innings of 25 Tests between March 2002 and August 2004.

India's streak also contains the longest stretch of matches in which a team has scored more than 400 in at least one innings. Between December 2008 and January 2010, India made more than 400 in nine straight matches, equaling Australia's run in 1989 and South Africa's in 1999-00. The innings defeat to South Africa in Nagpur in February ended that spell, but India began a new one in Sri Lanka in July, and have scored more than 400 in seven consecutive Tests since.

Matches in which teams have been dismissed for scores less than 100 in the modern day are pretty rare. Consecutive matches are rarer so Pakistan's twin implosions against England at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston in August make the list. No team is ever going to beat Australia's 19th-century run of sub-100 scores though. Between August 1886 and 1888, they were dismissed for less than 100 in seven consecutive Tests. They lost six of those matches to England but won at Lord's by 61 runs.

Australia also endured a period between 1885 and 1890 in which they were dismissed for less than 200 in at least one innings of 12 consecutive Tests. That remained the longest such streak for more than 100 years, until Bangladesh joined the fraternity and were skittled for sub-200 totals in 14 consecutive Tests between 2001 and 2003.

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