After the fall of the third wicket, the score added by the batting team before the fall of the next wicket is referred to as the fourth wicket partnership. It is typically an extremely important phase in the game, particularly in the longest format.
It’s never simple to form a dominant fourth wicket partnership, whether it’s to save the side after losing the first three wickets in quick succession or to build on the foundation laid by the top order.
Revisiting some of those exceptional partnerships, here are the top 10 highest partnerships in Test cricket for the fourth wicket:
Highest 4th Wicket Partnerships in Test Cricket
| Partners | Runs | Against | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Root & Harry Brook (ENG) | 454 | Pakistan | Multan | 7 Oct 2024 |
| Adam Voges & Shaun Marsh (AUS) | 449 | West Indies | Hobart | 10 Dec 2015 |
| Mahela Jayawardene & Thilan Samaraweera (SL) | 437 | Pakistan | Karachi | 21 Feb 2009 |
| Peter May & Colin Cowdrey (ENG) | 411 | West Indies | Birmingham | 30 May 1957 |
| Sir Garfield Sobers & Frank Worrell (WI) | 399 | England | Bridgetown | 6 Jan 1960 |
| Bill Ponsford & Sir Donald Bradman (AUS) | 388 | England | Leeds | 20 Jul 1934 |
| Ricky Ponting & Michael Clarke (AUS) | 386 | India | Adelaide | 24 Jan 2012 |
| Kane Williamson & Henry Nicholls (NZ) | 369 | Pakistan | Christchurch | 3 Jan 2021 |
| Virat Kohli & Ajinkya Rahane (IND) | 365 | New Zealand | Indore | 8 Oct 2016 |
| Sachin Tendulkar & VVS Laxman (IND) | 353 | Australia | Sydney | 2 Jan 2004 |
Key Insights
Joe Root and Harry Brook hold the record for stitching the highest fourth-wicket partnership in Tests. The English pair added 454 runs against Pakistan in the second innings of the 2024 Multan Test. This is also the fourth-highest stand for any wicket in this format.
In the same Test, Brook slammed a 310-ball triple century, the third fastest by a batter in Test cricket.
The 454-run stand is the seventh-highest partnership for the fourth wicket in overall First-Class cricket. The highest (577) is by Vijay Hazare and Gul Mohammad for Baroda against Holkar during the 1947 season of the Ranji Trophy.
The 454-run partnership between Root and Brook is the highest for any wicket by a pair in an away Test match. And this is the second-highest partnership by a pair in a Test win.
Pakistan’s Azhar Ali and Misbah-ul-Haq recorded the highest run rate in a 100-plus run partnership for the fourth wicket in Tests. The duo aggregated an unbeaten 141-run stand off 102 balls at a run rate of 8.29 against Australia in the third innings of the 2014 Abu Dhabi Test.
Misbah contributed an unbeaten 101 in that stand, reaching his century off 56 balls, the joint second fastest by a batter in Tests.
Misbah shared 15 century partnerships with Younis Khan for the fourth wicket, the most by a pair in Tests. Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera follow them with 10 hundred stands.
Australia’s Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke stitched four double-century partnerships, the most by a pair for the fourth wicket in Tests.
Ponting-Clarke and Root-Brooke are the only two pairs with two partnerships of 300 or more runs for the fourth wicket in Test cricket.
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