So yesterday I was just chilling on my couch thinking about cricket stats – you know how it goes. Got super curious about who actually scored the most runs in a single test series. Figured it’d be easy to find. Boy was I wrong.
The Wild Goose Chase Begins
First I hit up Google obviously. Typed in “top test series run scorers” and got a billion listicles. Every site showed different numbers! Some had Bradman, some had Gavaskar, none agreed on the actual figures. Started getting proper annoyed clicking through ads and popups.
Then I remembered that dusty stats book in my attic. Dug it out sneezing from all the dust. Pages were yellow as hell and guess what? The damn thing was printed in 2003! Useless. Threw it back in the corner feeling like an idiot.
Spreadsheet Time
At this point I’m properly obsessed. Made black coffee, opened Excel and started building my own damn list. Went season by season:
- Looked up 1947 like it was my job
- Cross-referenced three cricket databases
- Spilled coffee all over my notes (typical)
- Hand-copied stats til my wrist cramped
Found this wild record from the 70s – Gavaskar against West Indies. Dude scored 774 runs in just four tests! My jaw actually dropped. Kept digging and uncovered even crazier stuff – Brian Lara’s 400 not out, Sangakkara’s back-to-back doubles…
My spreadsheet looked like a war zone after 3 hours. Highlighted cells everywhere, coffee stains, half my notes said “wtf?” when numbers didn’t match.
The Final Revelation
After all that headache, the actual record holder shocked me. Don Bradman’s 1930 Ashes series – 974 runs in seven innings. Average of 139.14! Even now that number seems made up. Felt like I’d uncovered buried treasure after all that work.
Printed out my messy spreadsheet, scribbled “MINDBLOWING RECORDS” at the top with a marker. Got way too excited and showed my wife – she pretended to care for like 30 seconds. Worth it though. Nothing beats finding stuff out for yourself, even if you look crazy doing it.
