Highest Twenty20 chases of all time

Beefed up bats, shrunk grounds as if on substance abuse and moreover above all, the lightning-fast evolution in terms of batting skill throughout the world, be it the sheer muscle of Andre Russell, or AB de Villiers' cheekiness or Jos Buttler's masterclasses in maneuvering the ball in areas devoid of fieldsmen, all the factors have teamed up to conjure a massive conspiracy theory to put bowlers out of the contest and make batsmen the prima donna of the show.

Gone are the times when bowlers felt safe on the back of a good first innings show by their batsmen, because in modern cricket, what goes around, comes around, often in awfully painful proportions.

The Vitality Blast 2018 is statistically the quickest scoring Twenty20 competition in the world so far, with average run rate hovering frighteningly close to nine runs an over. Ineffective English pitches and majority of the small host grounds added to the revolutionary wave of positive cricket all through England propagated by the exploits of the national side have meant that scoring rates throughout the league have been stratospheric.

On the account of that, we look at the massive batting advantage in recent times in terms of the highest team totals when batting second.

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#5 Birmingham Bears: 5/231 vs Northamptonshire at Birmingham, 2018

Notts Outlaws v Birmingham Bears - Vitality Blast

Riding on the back of an attacking spree by South Africa's first Twenty20 star Richard Levi, the Northants put up a match-winning score of 231 in the North Group match of the Vitality Blast, in doing so they broke their own highest score, 5/224 made all the way back in 2005.

Hundred odd minutes later they walked off the field with relieved but deflated spirits, as a rejuvenated Ian Bell helped the Bears match Northants' total for every run. His 131 off just 61 deliveries, laced with seven belligerent sixes far from his traditional self got the Bears on the very verge of victory but with two runs needed off as many deliveries in the end.

But then Colin de Grandhomme got himself out and Aaron Thomson and Grant Elliot could only scamper for a single off the last ball of a brilliant final over by Nathan Buck, who gave away nine in the concluding over of a match that had seen 453 runs amassed in the previous 39 overs. The match ended in stalemate and in accordance with the ECB regulations, both teams were awarded a point each rather than the traditional Super-Over tie breaker.

#4 Windies: 6/236 vs South Africa at Johannesburg, 2015

Proteas skipper Faf du Plessis became the first ever South African to score a century in all three formats of international cricket on the way to powering his side to a confidence instilling total of 7/231. In an innings where five batsmen went back to the pavilion for sub-20 scores, du Plessis' 119(56) was an innings of impact.

In the second dig, Windies, who were hurting from a smarting in the preceding Test series, decided to show the hosts that this was a format they wouldn't be intimidated in. Led by an opening onslaught by none other than the Twenty20 G.O.A.T. Chris Gayle's 90(41), they made South Africa's personal record tally look embarrassingly inadequate.

Gayle was backed by the Caribbean's man for the big occasions Marlon Samuels, whose 60(39) ensured that the lower order did not even have to break a sweat to scale the total, captain Darren Sammy sent the ball soaring across the Wanderers sky to seal the then highest chase in the format with four balls spared.

#3 India: 4/244 vs Windies at Lauderhill, 2016

India have been one of the most successful sides in the format and have also produced some of the finest exponents of the shortest version of the game. But their brand of cricket in T20s had always come under scrutiny for not being aggressive enough to match the globally soaring standards of rapid scoring. In Florida, the perception changed.

Batting first, Windies got off to a flyer, despite the absence of Gayle, it never felt like they lacked intensity as Evil Lewis (100 off 49) and Johnson Charles (79 off 33) ricocheted them to 6/245 in the first innings. Stuart Binny received the unfortunate treatment of being hammered for five sixes in an over by Lewis.

India then showed a side of theirs never seen before, even without their ace chasing batsman Virat Kohli contributing significantly, they gave the Windies a tough run for their money, Rohit Sharma (62 off 28) shed his typical habit of taking some time to get going and KL Rahul (110 off 51) lived up to his IPL generated hype. They particularly went after Windies' best, Sunil Narine, hitting him for 50 off his 3 overs.

MS Dhoni's struggled with the bat in the end, a relatively slow 43 off 25, meant that they fell short by a mere run in one of the most thrilling T20 encounters.

Slight footnote: The last Indian to get hit for five sixes in an over went ahead to repeat the feat, only a six better that time.

#2 Australia: 5/245 vs New Zealand at Auckland, 2018

Ever since the heroics of the 2017/18 Ashes, Australia had looked below par in the limited overs matches against England. So for the Trans-Tasman tri-series, the selectors picked a squad purely comprising BBL guns led by T20 enigma David Warner, and none of the burnt out members of the Test series.

On the postage stamp sized Eden Park, Martin Guptill and Colin Munro gave the Aussies little to smile about in the first half of the match. Their opening stand of 132 runs coming in just 64 balls demoralizing Australian fast bowlers and spinners in equal magnitudes. Guptill went on to record his second T20I hundred as the hosts put 6/243 on the board.

In a flawless batting performance, where the slowest effort was Chris Lynn's 18 off 13 balls, Australia never looked like lagging behind in the chase. Warner's quickfire 59(24) set things up, while BBL hero D'Arcy Short (76 off 44) batted throughout the majority of the innings to anchor the chase with help from the Victorian duo of Glenn Maxwell and Aaron Finch to take Australia home with a mind-boggling seven balls to spare.

Kiwi fast bowler Ben Wheeler epitomized how the day went for New Zealand, giving away 64 runs off 19 balls before being taken off mercifully for bowling two waist-high full tosses.

#1 Central Districts: 4/248 vs Otago Volts at New Plymouth, 2016

It does not occur very often that only four batsmen get dismissed throughout the chase and yet the side finds itself falling short of the target, Central Districts suffered a fate similar to India's by falling an agonizing solitary run short in a world record effort.

Set an even 250 to win after Hamish Rutherford scored a blistering first innings ton (massive kudos to Ben Wheeler for giving just 31 runs in his 4 overs in an innings total of 249), the Districts went about their chase in marvelous fashion, led from the front by veteran overseas recruit, Mahela Jayawardene, whose inspired knock of 116(56) kept them going right until the very end.

Tom Bruce played a commendable second in charge by scoring 61(29) and with him at the crease in the last over, a historic win looked all but formal as they needed just nine runs to send the Volts packing in a trauma of dejection.

But star Kiwi pacer Neil Wagner had other plans as he defended the modest eight runs he had to play within one of the best ever final over performances and the hosts were left with a bitter taste in their mouth, falling a run short of what would have been the highest ever successful chase.