Test Records - Week Ending 30th July 2006

Test # 1810 Sri Lanka vs South Africa (1st Test) at Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) Colombo.

It’s very ironic that Mahela Jayawardane made his test debut when Sri Lanka plundered 952 runs to record the highest total in test cricket. In his wildest of dreams Jayawardane would never have imagined that one day he would surpass Sri Lanka’s highest individual innings score of 340 by Jayasuriya. What about that unbelievable partnership of 576 between Jayasuriya and Mahanama? He may not have even given a thought to it as it needed another player who could stay with him for long and score enough. But test cricket has long history of repeating and seldom overtaking unbreakable records.

Consider this…

Sobers’ highest individual score of 365* was not touched for 36 yrs and now it is pushed back to 5th place.

Laker’s 10 wickets in an innings is another such record which was considered as untouchable and remained so for a very long time… but then Anil Kumble thought otherwise…

What about Bradman & Ponsford’s 451 run partnership which was set in 1934 stood as highest in test cricket for more than 56yrs? Though it was touched by Mudassar Nazar and Javed Miandad in 1982/83 it was only overtaken by Andrew Jones and Martin Crowe 8 years later when they notched up a 467 run partnership against SL in 1990/91.
Within 8yrs that record too was obliterated and was taken to a new territory of 500 when Mahanama & Jayasuriya set that 576 run partnership record. Jayawardane was a mere 20 yr old test debutant and looking to make his mark in a star-studded Sri Lankan batting line-up. He did make an impressive debut though with a polished 66 in a 141 run partnership with Jayasuriya who went on to record Sri Lanka’s 1st and only triple century.

Now that too is history…

Jayawardane and Sangakkara took the partnership record to a whole new territory of 600 run mark. Their 624 run partnership is not only the highest in test cricket but also has overtaken the 60 yr old record in first class cricket. The previous record holders Vijay Hazare and Gul Mohammad added 577 for the fourth wicket in 1946/47 Ranji Trophy final to help Baroda defeat Holkar.

Wkt	Runs	Batsmen	Ground	Match
1st	413	M H Mankad and P Roy (Ind)	Madras	1955-1956 v. NZ
2nd	576	S T Jayasuriya and R S Mahanama (SL)	Colombo(PSS)	1997-1998 v. Ind
3rd	624	D P M Jayawardene and K C Sangakarra (SL)	Colombo(SSC)	2006-2007 v. SA
4th	411	P B H May and M C Cowdrey (Eng)	Birmingham	1957 v. WI
5th	405	S G Barnes and D G Bradman (Aus)	Sydney	1946-1947 v. Eng
6th	346	J H Fingleton and D G Bradman (Aus)	Melbourne	1936-1937 v. Eng
7th	347	D S E Atkinson and C Depeiza (WI)	Bridgetown	1954-1955 v. Aus
8th	313	Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq (Pak)	Sheikhupura	1996-1997 v. Zim
9th	195	M V Boucher and P L Symcox (SA)	Johannesburg	1997-1998 v. Pak
10th	151	B F Hastings and R O Collinge (NZ)	Auckland	1972-1973 v. Pak
		Azhar Mahmood and Mushtaq Ahmed (Pak)	Rawalpindi	1997-1998 v. SA

During the process Jayawardane & Sangakkara batted the whole second day’s play thus joining 13 other pairs who did the same with Jayasuriya and Mahanama doing it on two full day’s in that same test when Sri Lanka recorded the highest total in test cricket.

Player 1	Player 1	For	Vs	Venue	Series	Day	Score Progress	Test Seq#
JB Hobbs	H Sutcliffe	Eng	Aus	Melbourne	1924/25	3rd	283/0	t0159
*DS Atkinson	+CC Depeiaza	WI	Aus	Bridgetown	1954/55	4th	187/6 to 494/6	t0406
MH Mankad	P Roy	Ind	NZ	Madras	1955/56	1st	234/0	t0420
CC Hunte	GS Sobers	WI	Pak	Kingston	1957/58	3rd	147/1 to 504/1	t0450
GS Sobers	FMM Worrell	WI	Eng	Bridgetown	1959/60	5th	279/3 to 486/3	t0485
WM Lawry	*RB Simpson	Aus	WI	Bridgetown	1964/65	1st	263/0	t0589
GR Viswanath	Yashpal Sharma	Ind	Eng	Madras	1981/82	2nd	178/2 to 395/2	t0918
AP Gurusinha	A Ranatunga	SL	Pak	Colombo(PSS)	1985/86	5th	83/3 to 323/3	t1043
GR Marsh	MA Taylor	Aus	Eng	Trent Bridge	1989	1st	301/0	t1125
ST Jayasuriya	RS Mahanama	SL	Ind	Colombo(RPS)	1997	3rd	39/1 to 322/1	t1374
ST Jayasuriya	RS Mahanama	SL	Ind	Colnmbo(RPS)	1997	4th	322/1 to 587/1	t1374
VVS Laxman	RS Dravid	Ind	Aus	Calcutta	2000/01	4th	254/4 to 589/4	t1535
JA Rudolph	HH Dippenaar	SA	BD	Chittagong	2003	2nd	254/4 to 589/4	t1640
+KC Sangakkara	*DPMD Jayawardene	SL	SA	Colombo(SSC)	2006	2nd	128/2 to 485/2	t1810

** There are atleast three more instances of an unrestricted day's play (except for couple of overs for bad light at the end of the day) ending without a singe wicket falling.

1. Against WI in 1978/79 series at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, Gavaskar and Vengsarkar have started the 4th day at 70/1 and took it to 361/1 before declaring the innings.Then SFA Bacchus & David Murray opened the batting for WI and ended the day at 15/0.

2. On the second against Australia in 1998/99 series at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica Brian Lara & Pedro Collins have started the day at 37/4(14.3 Overs). Pedro Collins was retired hurt when the score reached 56/4 (23.1Overs). JC Adams then came into bat and both he and Lara took the score to 377/4 (105 overs).

3. On the 5th and final day of 3rd test between India and Australia in 1986/87 series , Ravi Shastri & Dilip Vengsarkar started the day at 291/5 and took the score to 517/5 before India decalred the innings closed. Australia started their innings with Geoff Marsh(2*) & David Boon (5*) and batted till the end of the day without losing a wicket (9/0).

With Jayawardane & Sangakkara , Sri Lanka has set up a record score for the fall of 3rd wicket (638) beating the previous record of NZ whose 3rd wicket fell at 615 after the then world record partnership of 467 between AH Jones & Martin Crowe in New Zealand’s total of 671/4 wickets against Sri Lanka at Wellington in 1990/91.

Wkt	FOW Score	For	Total	Match	Vs	Venue
1st	413	Ind	537/3d	06/01/1956	NZ	The Oval
2nd	615	SL	952/6d	02/08/1997	Ind	Colombo(RPS)
3rd	638	SL	756/5d	27/07/2006	SA	Colombo(SSC)
4th	790	SL	952/6d	02/08/1997	Ind	Colombo(RPS)
5th	921	SL	952/6d	02/08/1997	Ind	Colombo(RPS)
6th	924	SL	952/6d	02/08/1997	Ind	Colombo(RPS)
7th	876	Eng	903/7d	20/08/1938	Aus	The Oval
8th	813	WI	849	10/04/2004	Eng	St. Johns
9th	821	WI	849	10/04/2004	Eng	St. Johns
10th	849	WI	849	10/04/2004	Eng	St. Johns

Here are some of the other statistical highlights of this record setting/breaking test match which is surely is one for cricket statisticians to remember forever:

In addition to all the records mentioned above Jayawardane also reached a personal landmark by completing 6000 runs in test cricket and became only the 3rd Sri Lankan after Jayasuriya and Aravinda De Silva to do so and join the 6000-club which now consists of 43 cricketers.

Both Jayawardane and Sangakkara not only recorded their highest test scores but also provided 12th occasion of two batsmen recording a double hundred in a test innings. Their 250+ scores are only the 2nd occasion since Sobers with 365* and Conrad Hunte with 260 massacred Pakistan at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica in 1957/58.

Player 1	Player 1	For	Vs	Venue	Series	Part	Test Seq
WH Ponsford (266)	DG Bradman (244)	Aus	Eng	The Oval	1934	451	t0237
SG Barnes(234)	DG Bradman*(234)	Aus	Eng	Sydney(2nd Test)	1946/47	405	t0280
CC Hunte(260)	GS Sobers(365*)	WI	Pak	Kingston	1957/58	446	t0450
WM Lawry(210)	RB Simpson*(201)	Aus	WI	Bridgetown	1964/65	382	t0589
Mudassar Nazar(231)	Javed Miandad(280*)	Pak	Ind	Hyderabad(Sind)	1982/83	451	t0946
G Fowler(201)	MW Gatting(207)	Eng	Ind	Madras	1984/85	241	t1008
Qasim Umar(206)	Javed Miandad*(203*)	Pak	SL	Faisalabad	1985/86	397	t1026
ST Jayasuriya(340)	RS Mahanama(225)	SL	Ind	Colombo(RPS)	1997	576	t1374
Ijaz Ahmed(211)	Inzamam-ul-Haq(200*)	Pak	SL	Dhaka	1998/99	366	t1450
KC Sangakkara(270)	MS Atapattu*(249)	SL	Zim	Bulawayo	2004	438	t1699
WW Hinds(213)	S Chanderpaul*(203*)	WI	SA	Georgetown	2004/05	384	t1745
KC Sangakkara+(287)	DPMD Jayawardene*(374)	SL	SA	Colombo(SSC)	2006	624	t1810

Jayewardene’s 374 is now the fourth highest test score in an innings and also the highest by a player batting in the 2nd innings of a test match though it was the 1st innings for their side.

Player	Country	Runs	Match	Versus	Ground	Mat Inns	Side Inns
Lara, B C*	West Indies	400*	10/04/2004	England	St. John’s	1st	1st
Hayden, M L*	Australia	380	09/10/2003	Zimbabwe	Perth	1st	1st
Lara, B C*	West Indies	375	16/04/1994	England	St. John’s	1st	1st
Jayawardene, D P M*	Sri Lanka	374	27/07/2006	South Africa	Colombo(SSC)	2nd	1st
Sobers, G S A	West Indies	365*	26/02/1958	Pakistan	Kingston	2nd	1st
Hutton, L	England	364	20/08/1938	Australia	The Oval	1st	1st
Jayasuriya, S T*	Sri Lanka	340	02/08/1997	India	Colombo(RPS)	2nd	1st
Hanif Mohammad	Pakistan	337	17/01/1958	West Indies	Bridgetown	3rd	2nd
Hammond, W R	England	336*	31/03/1933	New Zealand	Wellington	2nd	1st
Bradman, D G	Australia	334	11/07/1930	England	Headingley	1st	1st
Taylor, M A	Australia	334*	15/10/1998	Pakistan	Peshawar	1st	1st
Gooch, G A	England	333	26/07/1990	India	Lord's	1st	1st
Inzamam-Ul-Haq*	Pakistan	329	01/05/2002	New Zealand	Lahore	1st	1st
Sandham, A	England	325	03/04/1930	West Indies	kingston	1st	1st
Gayle, C H*	West Indies	317	29/04/2005	South Africa	St.John’s	2nd	1st
Simpson, R B	Australia	311	23/07/1964	England	Old Trafford	1st	1st
Edrich, J H	England	310*	08/07/1965	New Zealand	Headingley	1st	1st
Sehwag, V*	India	309	28/03/2004	Pakistan	Multan	1st	1st
Cowper, R M	Aus	307	11/02/1966	England	Melbourne	2nd	1st
Bradman, D G	Aus	304	20/07/1934	England	Headingley	2nd	1st
Rowe, L G	WI	302	06/03/1974	England	Bridgetown	2nd	1st

Except Pakistan’s Hanif Mohammed, who hit 337 in the 2nd innings of Pakistan and 3rd innings of the test match against West Indies in 1957/58 all of the triple hundreds in test cricket are recorded during the 1st innings of their team‘s batting and 1st or 2nd innings of the match. Highest score in the fourth innings of a test match was recorded by George Headley when he hit 223 against England in 1929/30 series at Sabina Park, Kingston Jamaica. Infact in 4th innings of a test match only five times a double hundred was hit as shown in the following table.

Player	Country	Runs	Match	Versus	Ground
Headley, G A	West Indies	223	03/04/1930	England	Sabina Park
Astle, N J*	New Zealand	222	13/03/2002	England	Jade Stadium
Gavaskar, S M	India	221	30/08/1979	England	The Oval
Edrich, W J	England	219	03/03/1939	South Africa	Kingsmead
Greenidge, C G	West Indies	214*	28/06/1984	England	Lord's

Jayewardene’s 374 also erases Inzamam-ul-Haq’s name from record books as the highest score in test cricket for that batting position 4.

List of highest scorers for each batting position in test cricket :

Pos	Player	Country	Runs	Match	Versus	Ground
1	Hutton, L	England	364	20/08/1938	Australia	The Oval
2	Hayden, M L*	Australia	380	09/10/2003	Zimbabwe	Perth
3	Lara, B C*	West Indies	400*	10/04/2004	England	St. John's
4	Jayawardene, D P M*	Sri Lanka	374	27/07/2006	South Africa	Colombo(SSC)
5	Bradman, D G	Australia	304	20/07/1934	England	Headingley
6	Walters, K D	Australia	250	18/02/1977	New Zealand	Jade Stadium
7	Bradman, D G	Australia	270	01/01/1937	England	Melbourne
8	Wasim Akram	Pakistan	257*	17/10/1996	Zimbabwe	Sheikhupura Stadium
9	Smith, I D S	New Zealand	173	22/02/1990	India	Eden Park
10	Read, W W	England	117	11/08/1884	Australia	The Oval
11	Zaheer Khan*	India	75	10/12/2004	Bangladesh	Bangabandhu Stadium

Sri Lanka’s total of 756/5 is the 6th highest total in test cricket as shown in the following table:

Country	Score	Inns	Year	Vs	Ground	Result
Sri Lanka	952/6 dec	1st	1997/98	Ind	Colombo(RPS)	Match Drawn
England	903/7 dec	1st	1938	Aus	The Oval	Eng Won by an Inns & 579 Runs
England	849	1st	1929/30	WI	Kingston	Match Drawn
West Indies	790/3 dec	1st	1957/58	Pak	Kingston	WI Won by an Inns & 174 Runs
Australia	758/8 dec	1st	1954/55	WI	Kingston	Aus Won by an Inns & 82 Runs
Sri Lanka	756/5 dec	1st	2006/07	SA	Colombo(SSC)	SL Won by an Inns & 153 Runs.

TM Dilshan during his 45 run knock completed 2000 runs in test cricket thus becoming the 12th Sri Lankan and 237th cricketer to aggregate 2000 runs in a test career.

Player	Country	Tests	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	100s	50s	Avg	S/R
Jayasuriya, S T*	Sri Lanka	104	176	14	6625	340	14	29	40.90	64.68
De Silva, P A	Sri Lanka	93	159	11	6361	267	20	22	42.98
Jayawardene, D P M*	Sri Lanka	82	134	10	6117	374	15	29	49.33	52.38
Atapattu, M S*	Sri Lanka	88	152	15	5330	249	16	15	38.91	44.68
Ranatunga, A	Sri Lanka	93	155	12	5105	135*	4	38	35.70
Sangakarra, K C*	Sri Lanka	61	101	5	4743	287	10	22	49.41	53.93
Tillakaratne, H P	Sri Lanka	83	131	25	4545	204*	11	20	42.88
Mahanama, R S	Sri Lanka	52	89	1	2576	225	4	11	29.27
Gurusinha, A P	Sri Lanka	41	70	7	2452	143	7	8	38.92
Vaas, W P U*	Sri Lanka	93	134	26	2435	74*	0	10	22.55	42.55
Samaraweera, T T*	Sri Lanka	39	58	8	2089	142	5	13	41.78	41.53
Dilshan, T M*	Sri Lanka	38	61	7	2034	168	4	9	37.67	56.05

Jacques Rudolph of South Africa too has completed 2000 test runs with the last run he made before he got out in South Africa's 2nd innings thus becoming 23rd South African and 237th cricketer to aggregate 2000 runs in a test career. He now has excatly 2000 runs from 34 tests at an avg of 37.03 with 5 hundreds and 8 fifties and a highest score of 222*.

Kumar Sangakkara now shares the record with Sir Don Bradman as the only cricketers to have figured in a 400+ run partnerships on two separate occasions.

Nicky Boje’s none for 221 is only the 2nd time cricket history a bowler has given away 200+ runs in a test inningswithout claiming a wicket The first instance was recorded way back in 1957/58 by Khan Mohammad of Pakistan in that same test match when Sobers hit that record breaking 365*.

Player	For	O	M	R	Test	Ground
Khan Mohammad	Pak	54.0	5	259	1957-1958 WIN v PAK	Kingston
Boje, N*	SA	65.0	5	221	2006-2007 SRL v SAF	Colombo(SSC)

Muralitharan with his second innings bowling analysis of 6 for 131 and match figures of 10 for 172 (3rd 10-for in a row) extended his test record of highest number of 5-fors in an innings to 54 and 10-fors in a match to 17.

Muralitharan and Jayawardene combination also holds the record for most number of dismissals (58) by a bowler/fielder combination.

Muralitharan now has 645 wickets in 107 tests and has taken the test bowling record of wickets per test to a whole new territory of 6. Only two bowlers who have 100+ wickets in a test career have a better strike rate than Muralitharan and both of them have less than 200 wickets and 30 tests to show for. Only ten bowlers who have taken 100+ wickets in test history have recorded a strike rate of 5+ per test and Richard Hadlee is the only other bowler along with Muralitharan to have a strike rate of 5+ and have taken 400 or more test wickets.

Bowlers with best wickets/test match strike rate:

Player	Country	Tests	Wkts	Avg	5w	10w	Wkts/Test
Barnes, S F	England	27	189	16.4	24	7	7.00
Lohmann, G A	England	18	112	10.8	9	5	6.22
Muralitharan, M*	Sri Lanka	107	645	22	54	17	6.03
Turner, C T B	Australia	17	101	16.5	11	2	5.94
Grimmett, C V	Australia	37	216	24.2	21	7	5.84
O'Reilly, W J	Australia	27	144	22.6	11	3	5.33
Blythe, C	England	19	100	18.6	9	4	5.26
Lillee, D K	Australia	70	355	23.9	23	7	5.07
Peel, R	England	20	101	17	5	1	5.05
Hadlee, R J	New Zealand	86	431	22.3	36	9	5.01

Strike rate of bowlers with 400 wickets in a test career:

Player	Country	Tests	Wkts	Avg	5w	10w	Wkts/Test
Warne, S K*	Australia	140	685	25.3	36	10	4.89
Muralitharan, M*	Sri Lanka	107	645	22	54	17	6.03
McGrath, G D*	Australia	119	542	21.6	28	3	4.55
Kumble, A *	India	110	533	28.8	33	8	4.85
Walsh, C A	West Indies	132	519	24.4	22	3	3.93
Kapil Dev	India	131	434	29.7	23	2	3.31
Hadlee, R J	New Zealand	86	431	22.3	36	9	5.01
Wasim Akram	Pakistan	104	414	23.6	25	5	3.98
Ambrose, C E L	West Indies	98	405	21	22	3	4.13

Test # 1811 England v Pakistan at Old Trafford, Manchester

This test match was started on the sameday as the other test between Sri Lanka and South Africa. But it totally pales in comparison in terms of test records. Though it was started on the same note as Pakistan was dismissed on the first day for a paltry 119 and England notched up 168 for the loss of just two wickets thus gainining a first innings lead on the first day of the test match. This is 41st such occassion and 20 times the side that took the lead on the first day registered an innings victory. Twice they lost and thrice they had to settle for a draw. On other occassions they won the matches by a wickets margin most of the times chasing paltry totals.

Steve Harmison took 10 wickets in an innings for the first time in his test career. Incidentally this also is the first time that he registered a 10 wkt-haul in a first class match.

Alastair Cook by hitting an 127 pushed his batting average to 59.40.

Danish Kaneria still maintains his record of having more test wickets than test runs among the bowlers who took 100 or more test wickets in a career.

Geraint Jones , who is dropped from the 3rd test team, still maintains his record of playing most number of innings in a test career without a single duck. Inzamam-ul-Haq finally gets dismissed for less than a 50+ score against England.