India women scored the highest total in women’s test history [BCCI]
Women’s Test cricket has witnessed a seismic shift in batting, with two of the biggest-ever recorded team totals in history both occurring within a span of five months in 2024. Here at OneCricket, we take a look back at five highest team totals scaled in the history of Women’s Tests.
Kirsty Bond cracked the first-ever women’s double ton (x.com)
Touring England for three Test matches, a Sarah Illingworth-led New Zealand women’s unit stacked up 517 runs in the series opener to record one of the highest format totals of all time. Up against England’s 414-run first innings total, New Zealand openers Shelley Fruin and Debbie Hockley both listed dazzling half-centuries at the top before number three batter Kirsty Bond (204) produced the first-ever double ton in women’s Test history.
In the third Test of Australia’s month-long tour of India in early 1984, the visitors shaped 525 runs at Ahmedabad to scale a 182-run first-innings lead over India’s 343. As many as three Australian players brought down centuries in the innings, with captain Jill Kennare top-scoring with a career-best 131. Opening batter Peta Verco scored 105 while unbeaten Karen Price cracked 104 runs while batting at number eight.
Australia’s monumental batting effort across Days 2 and 3 of their four-day stalemate with India eventually resulted in a tame draw.
Joanne Broadbent celebrating her historic double century (x.com)
In the opening Test of the 1998 Ashes in England, the visiting Australian team recorded 569-6 before captain Belinda Clark called for a declaration. The innings helped Australia soar past New Zealand’s 517 from 1996 to crack the highest total in women’s Tests. Number three Joanne Broadbent top-scored with 200 from 476 balls to become the first Australian player in Test history to score a double century. Debutant Mel Jones also blazed her way to a career-best 131 in the very first innings of her five-match Test career.
Hosting South Africa in a one-off Test match in February 2024, Australia shattered multiple records at Perth’s WACA. After folding up the Proteas for 76 on Day 1, the hosts tonked 575-9d in just 125.2 overs at a prolific scoring rate of 4.58. Apart from scaling a colossal 499-run lead, Australia’s batting epic became the highest-ever recorded total in women’s Tests at the time, breaking their own 26-year-old feat of 569-6d against England.
Just a few months after the battering of Perth, South African bowlers agonized fresh bruises at Chennai’s Chepauk Stadium in June 2024, this time at the hands of a strong Harmanpreet Kaur-led Indian bunch.
Hosting the Proteas for a one-off Test match, the ‘Women in Blue’ went on a record-breaking spree of all sorts with their first-innings run-riot, smashing 603-6d to scale the highest-ever total in women’s history.
Openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma both cracked imperial centuries in their world-record opening stand of 292, with the latter of the two making 205 off 197 balls with 23 boundaries and eight sixes. Remarkably, Verma’s six-laden extravaganza also marked the fastest double-century (194 balls) in women’s Test cricket, breaking Annabel Sutherland’s four-month-old 248-ball effort.
India’s 603-6d was also fuelled by the half-centuries of middle-order batters Jemimah Rodrigues (55 off 94 balls), captain Harmanpreet Kaur (69 off 115 balls) and wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh (90-ball 86).
