The vintage era of cricket was blissful. No helmet, no no-ball above waist, yet batsmen scored runs almost fearlessly in those times. Test cricket was more or less a fierce battle between the bowler and batsman. Some of the records of that era have not been broken as yet. The 347-run partnership between the West Indian duo of Denis Atkinson and Clairmonte Depeiaza is still a world record that was made 6 decades ago in the year 1955. Then again the Pakistani batsmen Waqar Hasan and Imtiaz Ahmed added 308-run stand against New Zealand in the same year but couldn’t break the world record of West Indian pair. Interestingly, despite the availability of large number of all-rounders in various test teams, no pair could score triple century partnership over the last 61 years.
South Africa registered the first ever double century partnership for the 7th wicket in test matches. Jackie McGlew and Andrew Murray of South Africa forged 246-run-stand for the 7th wicket against New Zealand in 1953 which was the highest partnership for this wicket at that time. However, this record didn’t stay alive for too many days as the West Indian pair of Denis Atkinson and Clairmonte Depeiza hammered the world record 347-run partnership for the 7th wicket against Australia a couple of years later in 1955.
A total of 13 double century partnerships have been recorded in the last few decades for the 7th wicket but no pair could touch 300-run stand as yet. Last time a pair reached close to that figure was in the year 2013 when Indian pair of Ravichandra Ashwin and Rohit Sharma forged a huge 280-run stand for the 7th wicket in Kolkata to record the highest run for this wicket by an Indian pair. Indian batsmen have performed well for this wicket as out of the top 10 highest partnership for this wicket, India featured in 4 of them. The former Indian cricketers such as VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni have played really some memorable and brilliant knocks down the order quite a number of times.
Highest 7th Wicket Partnerships in Test Match
Batsmen (Team)
|
Runs
|
Against
|
Venue
|
Date
|
Denis Atkinson & Clairmonte
Depeiaza (West Indies)
|
347
|
Australia
|
Bridgetown
|
14/05/1955
|
Waqar Hasan & Imtiaz Ahmed
(Pakistan)
|
308
|
New Zealand
|
Lahore
|
26/10/1955
|
Jason Holder & Shane Dowrich
(West Indies)
|
295
|
England
|
Bridgetown
|
23/01/2019
|
Rohit Sharma & Ravishchandra
Ashwin (India)
|
280
|
West Indies
|
Kolkata
|
06/11/2013
|
BJ Watling & Mitchell Santner
(New Zealand)
|
261
|
England
|
M. Maunganui
|
21/11/2019
|
VVS Laxman & MS Dhoni
(India)
|
259*
|
South Africa
|
Kolkata
|
14/02/2010
|
Yousuf Youhana &
Saqlain Mushtaq (Pakistan)
|
248
|
New Zealand
|
Christchurch
|
15/03/2001
|
Jackie McGlew & Anton Murray
(South Africa)
|
246
|
New Zealand
|
Wellington
|
06/03/1953
|
Jonny Bairstow & Jamie Overton
(England) |
241 |
New Zealand |
Leeds |
23/06/2022 |
Ravi Shastri & Syed Kirmani
(India)
|
235
|
England
|
Mumbai
|
28/11/1984
|
Chris Cairns & Jacob Oram
(New Zealand)
|
225
|
South Africa
|
Auckland
|
18/03/2004
|
VVS Laxman & MS Dhoni
(India)
|
224
|
West Indies
|
Kolkata
|
14/11/2011
|
Prasanna Jayawardene &
Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka)
|
223*
|
Bangladesh
|
Colombo
|
25/06/2007
|
Denis Lindsay, PVD Merwe
(South Africa) |
221 |
Australia |
Johannesburg |
23/12/1966 |
Doug Walters & Gary Gilmour
(Australia) |
217 |
New Zealand |
Christchurch |
18/02/1977 |
VVS Laxman & Ajay Ratra (India) |
217 |
West Indies |
Antigua |
10/05/2002 |
Simon Katich & Adam Gilchrist
AUS) |
212 |
New Zealand |
Christchurch |
10/03/2005 |
*- Not out