Chasing big totals to win: Why are batsmen in such a hurry these days?

When a cricket team is set anything more than 400 to win a Test, the target is generally considered out of reach.

The thinking behind this stems from the fact that only on four occasions has a team scored more than this figure in the final innings to win a Test, beginning in 1948 when Australia scored 3 for 404 to defeat England in the fourth Test at Headingley.

Two Australian legends, Arthur Morris and Donald Bradman, made big centuries in the win, and this only made the target seem more difficult: the logic became that unless you had some top-notch batsmen in your side, you had no chance of achieving a target that big
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