The Oval Invincibles were at their emphatic best on Monday night as they eased to a seven-wicket victory over Southern Brave to move clear at the top of the league table.
It was the bowlers who set the foundations for the two-time defending champions in Southampton last night, restricting the hosts to 133 all out, though during Saturday’s win against Welsh Fire, it was all about the batters as they racked up 226-4 – a new record score for the Hundred competition.
Jordan Cox starred with an unbeaten 86 off just 29 balls but there were also useful cameos from openers Will Jacks (38 off 28) and Tawanda Muyeye (33 off 15), as well as in-form Sam Curran (34 off 19) and destructive finisher Donovan Ferreira (18 off 6), thrilling the South London crowd with an innings total of 17 sixes.
Whilst stats for the Hundred format are included under the T20 umbrella, the Invincibles scoring rate was equivalent to a total of 271 if adjusted accordingly which would have comfortably ranked within the top 20 highest-ever innings totals in T20 cricket.
In light of events at The Oval on Saturday, we take a look back at when teams smashed the record total in other T20 leagues around the world.
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Somerset 265-5 vs Derbyshire (Vitality Blast, July 2022)
We begin close to home in the UK’s long-standing Vitality Blast competition and a game I myself was fortunate enough, or unfortunate as a Derbyshire fan, to witness in person at Taunton three years ago as Somerset clubbed an English T20 record to book their spot at Finals Day.
The final last-eight contest of the week paired the South Group’s second-placed side Somerset at home to Derbyshire from the North section, who had only reached the knockout stages for the fourth time in the competition’s history.
Derbyshire won the toss and elected to field but that was about as much joy as they had as the Somerset batters set about putting on a show for a sold-out Taunton crowd on a beautiful summer’s evening.
South African Rilee Rossouw grabbed the headlines with a 36-ball 93, including eight fours and seven sixes, with support from Tom Banton (73 off 41) in a second-wicket partnership worth 102 runs in 8.2 overs.
Tom Lammonby hit a rapid 31 in just nine balls as the hosts added 56 in the final three overs to finish on 265 and surpass the 261-2 made by the Birmingham Bears against Notts Outlaws at Trent Bridge less than a month before.
Remarkably, Derbyshire seamer George Scrimshaw got out of there with impressive figures of 2-16 from four overs but it was a night to forget for spinner Mattie McKiernan who set an unwanted record for the most expensive spell in T20 history (0-82 off four overs), including a seven-ball over which brought 36 runs – his figures have since been beaten by Gambia’s Musa Jobarteh (93 runs) during a T20 International against Zimbabwe in October 2024.
To compound an already brutal night for the East Midlands outfit, they then folded miserably to 74 all out, meaning the 191-run margin was also the heaviest T20 Blast defeat.
READ MORE: Tawanda Muyeye – The Zimbabwe-born batter changing English cricket’s story
Sunrisers Hyderabad 287-3 vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Indian Premier League, April 2024)
Moving on to the biggest franchise league of them all, so rather fittingly the highest total in this list and the largest in domestic T20 cricket.
Sunrisers Hyderabad are responsible for five of the six biggest scores in IPL history, all of which have come over the past two seasons.
Their total of 287 against RCB came in 2024 as Australian opener Travis Head hit a then fourth-fastest IPL century off just 39 balls, with nine fours and eight sixes, putting on an opening stand of 108 with Abhishek Sharma.
Heinrich Klaasen smashed seven sixes on his way to 67, whilst Aiden Markram and Abdul Samad also added quick fire 30’s as they beat their own record of 277-3 which they had set only a few weeks prior against Mumbai Indians.
England’s Reece Topley conceded 68 runs from his four overs, the joint-seventh most expensive IPL spell today, whilst Will Jacks’ off-spin proved the most economical at 32 from three overs.
In a staggering game that remains the highest-scoring T20 aggregate match ever, RCB made a brave attempt at the target to finish 25 runs short on 262-7, the joint-largest second innings total in T20 history.
Before the 2024 edition, RCB’s total of 263 from 2013 had remained the score to beat but Sunrisers Hyderabad’s ultra-aggressive batting approach made light work of that record and they once again threatened the 300-barrier mark in 2025 – a feat only achieved three times in T20 history – with scores of 286 and 278 to dominate the leaderboard.
Melbourne Stars 273-2 vs Hobart Hurricanes (Big Bash League, January 2022)
Hopping to the land Down Under now, where the MCG were treated to a stunning performance from the ‘Big Show’ himself Glenn Maxwell in 2022 as the Melbourne Stars racked up 273-2, which at that moment in time was a T20 franchise record.
Fittingly playing in his 100th BBL match, Maxwell hit 22 fours and four sixes in an astonishing unbeaten 154 off just 64 balls at the top of the order, the highest individual score in the BBL and the 11th-highest in T20 history to date.
Coincidentally, Maxwell was partnered by Marcus Stoinis (75* off 31) at the other end for much of his innings, whom he knocked off the top perch when he went past 147 which Stoinis made on the same ground two years earlier.
Maxwell raced to his century off 41 balls, two short of the BBL record which was equalled by Mitch Owen in the 2025 final, adding 132 for the third wicket in nine overs to set up a resounding 106-run victory in what was the final game of the group phase.
Trinbago Knight Riders 267-2 vs Jamaica Tallawahs (Caribbean Premier League, September 2019)
The CPL is currently in progress and you would expect a competition packed with West Indian flair to be responsible for some huge scoring contests.
However, the record score has remained untouched in the past five editions since the Trinbago Knight Riders made 267-2 in the tenth game of CPL 2019.
In fact, it was Kiwi Colin Munro who did a lot of the damage at Sabina Park, remaining unbeaten on 96 after striking six fours and eight sixes in his 50-ball innings.
Lendl Simmons had earlier made 86 from just 42 balls in a 124-run stand for the second-wicket, before the big-hitting Kieron Pollard smashed a 17-ball 45 to catapult the Knight Riders to a total which was then the highest team score in franchise cricket, albeit they were given a helping hand from some sloppy fielding and generous gifts from the bowlers.
The legend Chris Gayle could only stand and watch in the field for the opposition, unable to replicate such fireworks of his own as his side fell 41 runs short in pursuit, though the 493 match aggregate runs was only four less than the record back then.
Guyana Amazon Warriors came within one run of equalling the record total against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots during the 2024 competition, though Shimron Hetmyer’s inspired knock of 91 with zero fours but 11 sixes could only help his side post 266-7.
Durban Super Giants 254-4 vs Pretoria Capitals (SA20, February 2023)
The inaugural edition of South Africa’s premier white ball competition saw one of its main stars Heinrich Klaasen strike a blistering ton to propel his side to 254 which remains the only score in excess of 250 in the competition to date.
Quinton de Kock and Ben McDermott provided a rapid platform in the powerplay, before further carnage ensued as Klaasen raced to his first of four career T20 centuries, reaching three figures off 43 balls from the penultimate delivery of the innings.
On an evening where no bowlers were spared – Josh Little’s four overs for 39 the highlight – Klaasen’s assault ended unbeaten on 104 from 44 balls which was one more run than the entire Pretoria batting lineup could muster as they slumped to a heavy 151-run defeat.
Klaasen’s hundred remains one of only seven in the competition’s three-year history, though was beaten by England’s Will Jacks as the fastest when he reached the milestone for the Capitals from 41 balls in the same fixture the following year.
San Francisco Unicorns 269-5 vs Washington Freedom (Major League Cricket, June 2025)
A recent entrant in another fast-growing T20 league as the proliferation of global franchise tournaments continues at a rate of knots.
The third instalment of USA‘s emergence in the short format ecosystem began with a bang in the first game at California’s historic Oakland Coliseum as New Zealand’s Finn Allen broke Chris Gayle’s sixes record in a staggering 151 off just 51 balls.
The opener’s 19 sixes was one better than the 18 launched by the West Indies great during the 2017 Bangladesh Premier League final, also shattering the record for the fastest 150 in just 49 balls.
His explosive 34-ball century was the second-fastest in franchise history, behind Gayle’s 30-ball blitz during the 2013 IPL, whilst his final score of 151 sees him joint-14th for the highest individual runs in a T20 innings ever.
Domestic-based duo Sanjay Krishnamurthi (36 with four sixes) and Hassan Khan (38 with three sixes) both made useful contributions but the night belonged to the 26-year-old Kiwi as his side registered a comfortable 123-run win.
Unsurprisingly, Allen’s effort is the highest in MLC history and the team total remains 23 runs ahead of the Unicorn’s next-best effort later in the tournament against eventual winners MI New York, though that may be under threat next year as the 2025 edition saw a remarkable 18 scores of 200+ across its 34 matches which was three times more than the previous two years combined.
By Dom Harris
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
