5 largest 1st innings leads after which follow-on was not enforced
During the old days in Test match cricket, teams would be enticed in making the opposition bat again when a lead of more than 199 – on which a side was eligible to enforce the follow-on was on its side. Those were days when bowlers were a lot fresher with not even half the amount of cricket as that played today. While the idea of not having to bat again seemed attractive then, the modern day has witnessed most instances when a captain chooses to bat and build a stronger lead rather than have a go with the ball.
Massive Test match leads have been gained with the most famous of the follow-on Tests remaining the Calcutta game between India and Australia in 2001, but Sportskeeda recalls the five highest first innings lead when the follow-on was not enforced.
#5 340: Australia vs West Indies, Sydney 1969
On West Indies' tour of Australia in 1968-69, the hosts were 2-1 ahead with the fifth and final Test at Sydney remaining to be played. Garry Sobers inserted Australia and his bowlers reduced them to 51/3. But his opposite number Bill Lawry and Doug Walters then began a huge stand of 336 which eventually took them to a massive total of 619. Alan Connolly and Graham McKenzie then combined for seven wickets to bowl West Indies out for 279, thus leaving the hosts with a lead of 340.
Lawry then chose not to make West Indies bat again, and centuries from Ian Redpath and Walters, again, took Australia to 394/8, after which they declared. Set with a daunting task of chasing down 735, the West Indies lost five men for only 102 on the board before captain Sobers and Seymour Nurse showed some fight with a 118-run stand. Both got centuries, but Australia bowled them out for 352 to win the match by 282 runs.
Brief Scores: Australia 619 (Walters 242, Lawry 151; Hall 3/157) and 394/8 dec (Redpath 132, Walters 103; Sobers 3/117) beat West Indies 279 (Carew 64; Connolly 4/61, McKenzie 3/90) and 352 (Nurse 137, Sobers 113; Gleeson 3/84) by 382 runs