Key Takeaways:
In 1930, England vs West Indies marked a historic Test match.
England's monumental batting performance set records in Test Cricket history.
Andy Sandham's triple hundred and Les Ames' aggressive innings were standout performances.
It was in the year 1930 that the mark of not only the first 700+ score was achieved in Test Cricket but also the first 800+ run mark was achieved. This test match was played from 3rd April 1930 at Kingston in Jamaica. This test match is historic in a number of ways. This was a test match between England vs West Indies. In this test match, England were the team to show the world that huge scores can be achieved by a team in Test Cricket.
Let’s talk about the innings from England which made test cricket history
England battled their way into the record books
First let’s talk about the team and in the year 1930, it was a Test Match between England vs West Indies from 3rd April. This was the first innings of the Test Match and England just kept on batting. They batted for 258 overs which means almost 3 days of a Test Match. This was a Test Match that was between 3rd till the 12th of April. England were in a space where they were just batting and they had big partnerships including the first wicket partnership of 173 runs. The second wicket partnership was of 138 and then the 3rd wicket partnership was for 97 runs but it was the 4th wicket partnership between Andy Sandham and Les Ames of 249 that room the England score to 667 and from there they made a mammoth 849 runs which is the 3rd highest team score in Test Cricket history.
Top Performances in the innings
Andy Sandham
Andy Sandham was the standout performer of the innings as he hit the first ever Triple Hundred to have ever been hit in Test Cricket history. He made a brilliant 325 runs from 640 balls which is almost 107 overs of batting by one batter. Andy Sandham hit 28 fours in this innings meaning 112 runs in boundaries. He had a strike rate of 51 in this innings and he hit 213 runs via runs. Andy Sandham was a batter who destroyed the West Indies and he was there till the England score reached 720.
Lee Ames
The other top performer with the bat was Les Ames who played a totally different type of Innings than that of Andy Sandham. Les Ames was a batter who batted like this was an ODI Match. Les Ames played for only 174 balls and he smashed 149 runs and he hit 17 fours which means he hit 68 runs in boundaries. Les Ames had a strike rate of 85.63 in this innings which was unheard of at that time. This innings helped England get to this massive total.
George Gunn
The last top performer in this massive innings was the opening batter George Gunn. George Gunn was an important part of this team and it was important that he gave England a great start and that is what he did. He made 85 runs from 216 runs and he hit 9 fours at a strike rate of 39.35. George Gunn was there till the score was 273 and if it was not for this opening stand then England could not have made 849. This test match was a draw in the end.
Also Read: First Time 400 was scored in an ODI innings
