Which Partnerships Decide Matches?

The record book, wicket by wicket

Published lists of the highest partnership for each wicket in Tests agree on the current set. The table below uses Wisden's per-wicket list, updated in June 2026 to include the new sixth-wicket record, cross-checked against ESPNcricinfo's partnership records pages and Cricbuzz's record list. Result margins come from the match scorecards and reports named in the Sources section. The convention is simple: partnership runs are quoted as published, an asterisk marks a stand that was still unbroken when the innings ended, and the result is the official result of the match, not a judgement about who the stand helped.

Wicket	Runs	Pair	Match	Result
1st	415	Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie	South Africa v Bangladesh, Chittagong, 2008	South Africa won by an innings and 205 runs
2nd	576	Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama	Sri Lanka v India, Colombo, 1997	Draw
3rd	624	Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene	Sri Lanka v South Africa, Colombo, 2006	Sri Lanka won by an innings and 153 runs
4th	454	Joe Root and Harry Brook	England v Pakistan, Multan, 2024	England won by an innings and 47 runs
5th	405	Don Bradman and Sid Barnes	Australia v England, Sydney, 1946	Australia won by an innings
6th	401	Amir Jangoo and Roston Chase	West Indies v Sri Lanka, North Sound, 2026	West Indies won by an innings and 217 runs
7th	347	Denis Atkinson and Clairmonte Depeiaza	West Indies v Australia, Bridgetown, 1955	Draw
8th	332	Jonathan Trott and Stuart Broad	England v Pakistan, Lord's, 2010	England won by an innings and 225 runs
9th	195	Mark Boucher and Pat Symcox	South Africa v Pakistan, Johannesburg, 1998	Draw
10th	198	Joe Root and James Anderson	England v India, Trent Bridge, 2014	Draw

Six of the ten record stands were made by the side that won; the other four were made in draws. None was made by the losing side. That pattern is worth a careful reading rather than a triumphant one. A record stand takes an enormous number of overs, and an innings that long usually means the side batted first and built a lead large enough that defeat was already unlikely. The stand may have caused the win, or it may simply have come from the same position that caused it. The table alone cannot separate those two stories.

The ODI list

The published per-wicket lists for one-day internationals give an even starker split. Every one of the ten current ODI record stands was made by the side that won the match.

Wicket	Runs	Pair	Match	Result
1st	365	John Campbell and Shai Hope	West Indies v Ireland, Dublin, 2019	West Indies won by 196 runs
2nd	372	Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels	West Indies v Zimbabwe, Canberra, 2015	West Indies won by 73 runs on D/L
3rd	258	Darren Bravo and Denesh Ramdin	West Indies v Bangladesh, Basseterre, 2014	West Indies won by 91 runs
4th	275*	Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja	India v Zimbabwe, Cuttack, 1998	India won by 32 runs
5th	256*	David Miller and JP Duminy	South Africa v Zimbabwe, Hamilton, 2015	South Africa won by 62 runs
6th	267*	Grant Elliott and Luke Ronchi	New Zealand v Sri Lanka, Dunedin, 2015	New Zealand won by 108 runs
7th	177	Jos Buttler and Adil Rashid	England v New Zealand, Birmingham, 2015	England won by 210 runs
8th	202*	Glenn Maxwell and Pat Cummins	Australia v Afghanistan, Mumbai, 2023	Australia won by 3 wickets
9th	132	Angelo Mathews and Lasith Malinga	Sri Lanka v Australia, Melbourne, 2010	Sri Lanka won by one wicket
10th	106*	Viv Richards and Michael Holding	West Indies v England, Manchester, 1984	West Indies won by 104 runs

Eight of the ten were first-innings stands: the side set a target and defended it. Of the two exceptions, one makes the best story of the set. At Melbourne in 2010, Sri Lanka were 107 for 8 chasing, and Angelo Mathews and Lasith Malinga's 132 for the ninth wicket finished a one-wicket win. With Glenn Maxwell and Pat Cummins's unbroken 202 at Mumbai in 2023, it is one of only two ODI record stands that won a match from the second innings, and it is the second-smallest of the ten. Size did not decide it. Timing did.

The biggest stands are usually made by the side that wins. That is not the same as deciding the match.

Read the two tables together and a pattern emerges: the record lists are dominated by first-innings stands from dominant positions. Sri Lanka's 624 came in a match Sri Lanka won by an innings and 153 runs; South Africa's 415 came in a match South Africa won by an innings and 205 runs. These stands were glorious, but the teams making them were already in positions where the only question was the size of the win.

Then there are the draws, and in Tests they are the honest counterweight. Sri Lanka's 576 against India at Colombo in 1997, the second-largest stand in Test history, ended drawn. West Indies' 347 for the seventh wicket at Bridgetown in 1955 ended drawn. South Africa's 195 for the ninth wicket at Johannesburg in 1998 ended drawn. England's 198 for the tenth wicket at Trent Bridge in 2014 ended drawn. Even Andrew Jones and Martin Crowe's 467 for the third wicket at Wellington in 1991, the second-largest third-wicket stand ever, ended drawn. Four of the ten Test records, and one of the largest non-record stands, bought their sides nothing more than survival or the avoidance of defeat.

None of this proves that partnerships do not matter. What it shows is that the record book and the scoreboard measure different things. The record book measures volume: how many runs two men made together. The scoreboard measures value: how far those runs moved the match from where it was when the stand began. Kolkata's 376 ranks far below the 624, the 576 and the 467 on volume. On value, measured as the distance between the likely result when the stand started and the actual result when the match ended, few stands in history can touch it.

Rescue stands: start from the trouble, not the total

The stands that change results have one thing in common, and it is not their size. It is where they began.

At North Sound in June 2026, West Indies were 168 for 5, still 140 behind Sri Lanka's 308, when Amir Jangoo joined captain Roston Chase. The pair added 401 for the sixth wicket, the first 400-run stand for the sixth wicket or lower in Test history, breaking Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow's 399 against South Africa in 2016. Jangoo made 233 in his second Test, Chase made 194, and West Indies declared at 626 for 9 before winning by an innings and 217 runs. The stand began in a position of clear deficit and ended in total dominance. That is a rescue that became a rout.

At Dunedin in 2015, New Zealand were 93 for 5 against Sri Lanka when Grant Elliott and Luke Ronchi came together. Their unbroken 267 for the sixth wicket carried New Zealand to 360 for 5, and New Zealand won by 108 runs. At Cape Town in 2006, South Africa were 136 for 7 against India when Justin Kemp and Andrew Hall began their unbroken 138 for the eighth wicket; South Africa reached 274 and won by 106 runs. At Melbourne in 2010, Sri Lanka were 107 for 8 chasing, and Angelo Mathews and Lasith Malinga's 132 for the ninth wicket finished a one-wicket win. These are the ODI record stands for the sixth and ninth wickets, and Kemp and Hall's was the eighth-wicket record until 2022; each began with the innings in genuine danger.

The oldest rescue in this set is also the smallest. At Headingley in 1981, England had followed on and were 135 for 7 in their second innings, still behind Australia's total, when Ian Botham and Graham Dilley added 117 for the eighth wicket. Botham finished on 149 not out. England set Australia 130, and Bob Willis took 8 for 43 to bowl Australia out and win by 18 runs. A 117-run stand, modest by record-book standards, remains one of the most valuable partnerships ever played, because it arrived when the match was lost.

Mudassar Nazar and Javed Miandad's 451 for the third wicket against India at Hyderabad in 1983 shows the same logic at record-book scale. They came together at 60 for 2 and were parted at 511 for 3; Pakistan went on to win by an innings and 119 runs. The stand is the equal of Ponsford and Bradman's 451 for the second wicket at The Oval in 1934, and it began with Pakistan in early trouble, not in a position of strength.

And the 2011 World Cup final shows that the stand need not be large at all. Chasing 275, India were 114 for 3 when Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni added 109 for the fourth wicket. Gambhir made 97, Dhoni finished 91 not out, and India won by six wickets. That 109 decided a World Cup final. The 576 at Colombo decided nothing more than a draw.

Stand	Score when they met	Result
Jangoo/Chase 401	168/5, 140 behind	West Indies beat Sri Lanka, North Sound 2026
Laxman/Dravid 376	follow-on, 274 behind	India beat Australia, Kolkata 2001
Elliott/Ronchi 267*	93/5	New Zealand beat Sri Lanka, Dunedin 2015
Kemp/Hall 138*	136/7	South Africa beat India, Cape Town 2006
Mathews/Malinga 132	107/8	Sri Lanka beat Australia, Melbourne 2010
Botham/Dilley 117	135/7, following on	England beat Australia, Headingley 1981
Gambhir/Dhoni 109	114/3 chasing 275	India beat Sri Lanka, 2011 World Cup final

The 438 chase: the platform and the finish

The greatest ODI chase ever played needed two kinds of partnership, and it needed both. At the Wanderers in March 2006, with the series level at 2-2, Australia posted 434 for 4, the first 400-plus total in ODI history, built on Ricky Ponting's 164 off 105 balls. South Africa lost Boeta Dippenaar for 1 in the second over. What followed was the stand that made the impossible merely difficult: Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs added 187 for the second wicket in 127 balls. Smith made 90 off 55, Gibbs 175 off 111, and when Smith fell at 190 the required rate had been held, not allowed to grow. Gibbs added 94 more with AB de Villiers, and at 284 for 3 in the 31st over the chase was alive.

Then Australia fought back, and the chase was won by the other kind of partnership: small, unbeaten, and finished. Wickets fell at 299, 327, 355, 399, 423 and 433. Mark Boucher, who finished 50 not out off 43 balls, shepherded the innings home through five separate stands: 28 with Justin Kemp, 44 with Johan van der Wath, 24 with Roger Telemachus, 10 with Andrew Hall, and the last 5 unbroken with No. 11 Makhaya Ntini. Seven were needed off the final over. Hall hit a four and was caught going for another at 433 for 9. Ntini nudged a single to tie the scores, and Boucher hit Brett Lee for four with one ball to spare. South Africa 438 for 9, won by one wicket.

Neither kind of stand wins that match alone. The 187 gave the chase its shape; the closing stands, none bigger than 44, gave it its finish. That is the whole argument of this article in a single evening: the record book remembers the 187, but the match was decided by a wicketkeeper's unbeaten fifty stitched together with four different partners. It is also why the ranked list of the ten most match-changing ODI stands weighs what a partnership had to do above how many runs it contained.

Openers do the work nobody counts

There is one kind of partnership the record tables undervalue by construction: the opening stand. Records are set by single stands; openers create value by doing it repeatedly, year after year, and by doing the one job no other pair does, which is seeing off the new ball so that everyone else can bat.

Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly are the documented case. Opening together in ODIs, they added 6,609 runs in 136 innings, with 21 century opening stands and a highest opening stand of 258. Across all wickets they added 8,227 runs in 176 innings with 26 century stands. The two aggregates must be kept separate: the opening figure is the one that describes the specialist job. Their opening record is not a single afternoon's 365 like Campbell and Hope's world record against Ireland in 2019, which is also the ODI opening record. It is the accumulation of hundreds of shared innings, each one making the innings that followed easier.

Opening stands have a distinctive strategic value in the one-day game. A long opening stand preserves wickets, and wickets preserved are the currency a chase is bought with: the side that loses few wickets early can accelerate late with set batters in. John Campbell and Shai Hope's 365 carried West Indies to a 196-run win over Ireland. Every ball an opener survives is a ball the middle order does not have to face against the new ball. This is the partnership logic that The Chase, CricArcade's one-day game, puts in your hands: choose the opening pair, decide how long to protect them, and feel how the whole innings changes shape when they last.

The fourth result: some partnerships save matches instead of winning them

In Tests there is a fourth result, and partnerships win it too. Four of the ten Test record stands were made in draws, and in each case the stand's value was negative space: runs that kept the other side from winning.

Mark Boucher and Pat Symcox's 195 for the ninth wicket at Johannesburg in 1998 began at 166 for 8. Their stand carried South Africa to 364, and the match was drawn. Joe Root and James Anderson's 198 for the tenth wicket at Trent Bridge in 2014 did the same job at the same end of the order. Denis Atkinson and Clairmonte Depeiaza's 347 for the seventh wicket at Bridgetown in 1955 took the game beyond Australia's reach. These stands decided matches in the only sense available: they decided the match would not be lost.

This is the part of Test cricket that The Follow-On, CricArcade's Test game, is built around. Enforcing the follow-on, timing a declaration, and batting for the draw are decisions about how many runs and how much time a partnership needs to make the match safe. The draw is not a failed win; in a five-day game it is a result that partnerships earn, wicket by wicket, hour by hour.

The two ranked lists

This article argues from cases. The raw material now has its own rankings. The 10 Greatest Test Partnerships, Ranked ranks the ten most match-changing Test partnerships of any size, from 117 to 467 runs, by the situation at arrival, the swing, the bowling, and the result, and The 10 Greatest ODI Partnerships, Ranked ranks the ten most match-changing ODI partnerships of any size, from 109 to 286 runs, by the situation at arrival, the swing, the bowling and tournament weight, and the result. Read them as the evidence locker for the argument above.

The numbers that matter

376: Kolkata's fifth-wicket rescue stand, 2001
401: the new sixth-wicket record, June 2026
10: of 10 ODI record stands made by the winning side
6,609: Tendulkar and Ganguly's runs opening together in ODIs

Methodology

There is no complete archive that pairs every partnership in Test and ODI history with the result of its match. This article combines published per-wicket record lists with match scorecards and reports, and it presents a case-based reading of the best-documented examples, not a complete population and not a statistical correlation. It does not prove that partnership size causes results, and nothing in it should be read as such.

Counting conventions: partnership runs are quoted as published in the record lists, not recomputed from ball-by-ball data; an asterisk marks a stand that was unbroken when the innings ended; result margins are quoted from the named match reports and scorecards. All examples are men's Tests and men's ODIs. Records were current as of September 2026 and will change when new records are set. The research pass found no ICC publication that pairs partnerships with results in a single archive; the record values used here come from the published lists named below.

Figures computed from CricArcade's match archive with our own analysis scripts. Checked against the scorecards and edited by Vishal Jaiswal. Found a number that looks wrong? Tell us and we will check it against the scorecard.

Sources

More research: