In the recent fifth and final Test at Kingston (Jamaica), South Africa failed to chase a victory target of 386 runs in the fourth innings. In the history of cricket, only two teams have successfully chased a target of more than 386 runs. India made 406 for four to win against the West Indies at Port of Spain in 1975-76 and Australia made 404 for three to beat England at Leeds in 1948. Incidentally, India also holds the record for highest fourth innings total - to tie a match (347 against Australia at Madras in 1986-87) and - to lose one (445 against Australia at Adelaide in 1977-78).

How has Pakistan done in a fourth innings chase?

Pakistan's record of chasing a target in the fourth innings has remained dismal throughout. In fact, they even failed to reach targets as low as the 146 set by South Africa at Faisalabad in 1997-98 and 159 set by Australia at Sydney in 1972-73. The only time Pakistan could reach a fourth innings target of over 300 runs and win the match was at Karachi against Australia in 1994-95, recording a narrow one-wicket victory. On scrutiny one finds that 14 of Pakistan's 67 defeats could be attributed to their batsmen's inability to reach the target set by the opponents. The details in chronological order are:

Yr	Vs	Venue	Toss	Opp Ist	Pak Ist	Opp 2nd	Target	Pak 2nd	Lost by
				Inn	Inn	Inn		Inn
1957-58	WI	Port of Spain	WI	325	282	312	356	235	120 runs
1971	Eng	Leeds	Eng	316	350	264	231	205	25
1972-73	Aus	Melbourne	Aus	441/5 d	574/8 d	425	293	200	92
1972-73	Aus	Sydney	Pak	334	360	184	159	106	52
1976-77	WI	Kingston	WI	280	198	359	442	301	140
1979-80	Ind	Bombay	Ind	334	173	160	322	190	131
1980-81	WI	Faisalabad	WI	235	176	242	302	145	156
1982	Eng	Birmingham	Eng	272	251	291	313	199	113
1992-93	WI	Port-of-Spain	WI	127	140	382	370	165	204
1995-96	SL	Faisalabad	Pak	223	333	361	252	209	42
1995-96	SL	Sialkot	SL	232	214	338	357	212	144
1996-97	NZ	Lahore	NZ	155	191	311	276	231	44
1997-98	RSA	Faisalabad	RSA	239	308	214	146	92	53
1997-98	RSA	Port Elizabeth	Pak	293	106	206/7 d	394	134	259

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