How it works

Not all hundreds are created equal. Tons of Consequence ranks every Test century by what it meant, and lets you decide what meaning is.

The six criteria

Every innings is scored from 0 to 100 on six things. The scores belong to the innings; how much each one counts is up to you.

• Match ImpactWin probability added, partnership value, whether the innings directly changed the match result.
• ClutchnessThe pressure index: team situation when the batter walked in, must-win context, series stakes.
• NarrativeThe human story: debut, comeback, redemption arc, farewell, playing through adversity.
• Conditions & OppositionPitch difficulty, quality of the bowling attack, weather and overhead conditions.
• Historical WeightRecords set, rivalry significance, ground lore, where this sits in cricket timeline.
• Perceived GreatnessHow often this innings appears in greatest-ever lists, fan polls, retrospective analysis.

Your weighting

You put the six criteria in order. Your first choice carries 30% of an innings’ score, then 22%, 18%, 14%, 10%, 6%. An innings’ ToC score is the weighted average, out of 100. Two people can rank the same innings differently, and both are right.

Scores fall into four tiers: Legendary (90 and over), Elite (82 to 89), Great (72 to 81) and Notable.

The “most divisive” view finds the innings whose score swings the most between five different points of view, the ones that start the best arguments.

How the scores are made

Most of the 4,628 innings are given automatic estimates built from the scorecard. The best-known innings are scored and written up by hand.

An innings in a Test that is still being played carries an “In progress” label until the result is known.

Where the data comes from

• The original list of centuries comes from ESPNcricinfo’s Statsguru.
• New centuries, and many match results, come from Cricsheet’s open ball-by-ball data.
• Hand-written match notes are checked against published match reports.

New centuries are added every month.