Tendulkar poised to overtake a Bradman milestone

During the recent Test series against Bangladesh, Rahul Dravid was involved in the 66th century partnership of his career and broke the record for being part of the most 100-run stands in Tests. In the forthcoming Test series against England, Sachin Tendulkar has the opportunity to go past Don Bradman and break the record for most double-century partnerships in Tests.

Both batsmen are currently on fourteen 200-run stands, though Bradman took fewer than half the number of matches Tendulkar needed to rack them up. There have been only twelve 400-plus partnerships to date in Tests and Bradman was part of two; one with Bill Ponsford and the other with Sid Barnes. The highest partnership Tendulkar's been involved in is 353, with VVS Laxman at Sydney in 2004.

The only major Test nation to not have a representative among the top 20 entries in our table below is New Zealand. In fact, no New Zealand batsman appears in our list of players involved in the most century stands either. England, too, have a poor record in 200-run partnerships. Wally Hammond and Len Hutton are the only Englishmen in the table; no one after 1955 makes the cut.

Most 200-run partnerships by a player - Tests

Player	Mat	Inns	Pships	200	100-199	50-100	High
DG Bradman (Aus)	52	80	180	14	21	49	451
SR Tendulkar (India)	137	220	451	14	47	75	353
Javed Miandad (Pak)	124	189	395	13	37	78	451
ML Hayden (Aus)	89	159	333	13	33	74	279
RT Ponting (Aus)	110	183	337	12	50	80	327
SR Waugh (Aus)	168	260	590	11	53	87	385
JL Langer (Aus)	105	182	351	11	38	64	327
BC Lara (ICC/WI)	131	232	508	9	53	84	322
G Kirsten (SA)	101	176	380	9	36	67	272
JH Kallis (ICC/SA)	107	182	430	9	31	89	315

Matthew Hayden's 13 double-hundred stands puts him in second place in our table after Bradman and Tendulkar while his long-time opening partner, Justin Langer, is sixth with 11. Together, however, they have given Australia an opening partnership of more than 200 on six occasions, the most for any pair.

Bradman and Ponsford batted together only ten times and only thrice did they put on more than a hundred together. But on each of those occasions, they converted it into a massive partnership - 229 against West Indies at Brisbane in 1931; and 451 at The Oval and 388 at Leeds during the 1934 Ashes.

Most 200-run partnerships by the same pair - Tests

Partners	Pships	200	100-199	50-100	High
ML Hayden, JL Langer (Aus)	122	6	8	28	255
CG Greenidge, DL Haynes (WI)	148	4	12	26	298
MA Atherton, GA Gooch (Eng)	57	4	5	12	263
SC Ganguly, SR Tendulkar (India)	61	4	6	12	281
Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan (Pak)	36	4	4	10	363
DG Bradman, WH Ponsford (Aus)	10	3	0	1	451
WM Lawry, RB Simpson (Aus)	64	3	6	18	382
Javed Miandad, Shoaib Mohammad (Pak)	23	3	5	7	248
M Azharuddin, SR Tendulkar (India)	42	3	6	5	222
PA de Silva, ST Jayasuriya (SL)	19	3	1	2	243

Although no single Englishman from the second half of the 20th century featured in the table for most double-hundred partnerships, Mike Atherton and Graham Gooch put on 200 runs four times together and are tied with three other prolific pairings in second place.

A double-century stand in an ODI is a rare occurrence and it's those who occupy top-order slots and bat for the majority of the innings who feature in out table. Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting, with six 200-run stands, are in first place ahead of Rahul Dravid who has five. Dravid, however, has been involved in the only two 300-plus stands in ODIs; with Ganguly at Taunton , and with Tendulkar at Hyderabad in 1999.

Most 200 run partnerships by a player - ODIs

Player	Mat	Inns	Pships	200	100-199	50-100	High
SR Tendulkar (India)	388	378	764	6	72	130	331
SC Ganguly (Asia/India)	295	285	586	6	55	107	318
RT Ponting (Aus/ICC)	280	272	503	6	49	106	237
R Dravid (Asia/ICC/India)	319	295	621	5	49	116	331
ST Jayasuriya (Asia/SL)	395	384	669	4	46	106	286
ME Waugh (Aus)	244	236	473	3	37	88	219
Saeed Anwar (Pak)	247	244	497	3	23	106	230
Inzamam-ul-Haq (Asia/Pak)	378	350	724	3	38	124	263

Gordon Greenidge-Desmond Haynes, and Hayden-Adam Gilchrist are among the most prolific pairings in one-day cricket and their stats are bizarrely similar. Both pairs have batted together 103 times and Greenidge-Haynes average 52.5 while Hayden and Gilchrist are two points lower at 50. Their highest partnerships are similar too. Both pairs have never shared a 200-run stand, 192 being Greenidge-Haynes's highest and 172 being the Australians' best. Gilchrist and Hayden, however, have managed one more century stand than what Haynes and Greenidge did.

Most 100-run partnerships by the same pair - ODIs

Partners	Pships	100+	200	100-199	50-100	High
SC Ganguly, SR Tendulkar (India)	161	22	3	19	28	258
AC Gilchrist, ML Hayden (Aus)	103	16	0	16	26	172
CG Greenidge, DL Haynes (WI)	103	15	0	15	25	192
MS Atapattu, ST Jayasuriya (SL)	144	14	1	13	26	237
A Flower, GW Flower (Zim)	88	12	0	12	17	161
R Dravid, SR Tendulkar (India)	90	11	2	9	12	331
R Dravid, SC Ganguly (Asia/India)	86	10	2	8	18	318
DL Haynes, RB Richardson (WI)	103	9	0	9	21	167
A Jadeja, SR Tendulkar (India)	41	9	0	9	9	176
NJ Astle, SP Fleming (NZ)	118	9	0	9	17	193