Dravid's virtuoso act and other one-man shows

Kapil Dev's last Test century was a face-saving innings against South Africa in December 1992. India had conceded a deficit of only 63 but were still in danger of losing by an innings. At 31 for 6, India were on the verge of a hammering but Kapil, despite an injured right hand, scored 129 out of the team's 215 and averted abject humiliation. Kapil had pulled off rescue acts before, famously against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells during the 1983 World Cup. On that occasion, the top five batsmen had collectively added 15 before Kapil blew everyone away with 175 off 138 balls.

Another fantastic one-day hundred when everyone else failed is Alec Stewart's effort against West Indies at Nottingham in 2000 but it ended in defeat. Chris Gayle's 37 was the highest score in West Indies' 195 and in England's innings no one got even close to that. No-one but Stewart, that is. They began the last over needing five to get with three wickets in hand. Stewart, batting on 100, ran out Paul Franks and watched, stranded at the other end, as the last two batsmen fell meekly to Gayle.

Highest ratio in an innings of the highest score over the second highest - ODIs (qualification: 50 runs)

Player	Runs	HS2	Ratio		Score	Opposition	Ground	Season	Scorecard
N Kapil Dev (India)	175*	24	7.29		266/8	v Zimb	Tunbridge Wells	1983	ODI 216
IVA Richards (WI)	189*	26	7.27		272/9	v Eng	Manchester	1984	ODI 264
Saeed Anwar (Pak)	101	17	5.94		196/8	v NZ	Lahore	1990/91	ODI 636
JM Davison (Can)	111	19	5.84		202	v WI	Centurion	2002/03	ODI 1963
RP Arnold (SL)	103	19	5.42		213	v Zimb	Bulawayo	1999/00	ODI 1528
DR Martyn (Aust)	116*	22	5.27		191	v NZ	Auckland	1999/00	ODI 1571
L Klusener (SAf)	103*	20	5.15		212/7	v NZ	Auckland	1998/99	ODI 1409
WU Tharanga (SL)	120	24	5.00		257/9	v Eng	Lord's	2006	ODI 2384
Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pak)	85*	17	5.00		131/3	v NZ	Sharjah	2000/01	ODI 1709
GR Viswanath (India)	75	15	5.00		190	v WI	Birmingham	1979	ODI 61

Andrew Jones' resistance against Waqar Younis' pace at Sharjah in 1990 resulted in a fascinating scorecard. The other ten New Zealand batsmen made 5,1,4,0,4,4,0,1,0,0, while Jones was the last man out on 47. These tables have a cut-off of 50 runs otherwise Jones would have been top by some distance.

The Cape Town Test between South Africa and England in 1896 is one of only nine instances in Test cricket where a batsman has scored a century without there being another fifty in the match. England batsman Arthur Hill's 124 in that match outscored South Africa, who made 115 and 117, and he also outscored his team mates who collected only 123 between them in an innings win. Hill capped the performance by taking the last four wickets to give himself the remarkable figures of 8-4-8-4.

Highest ratio in an match of the highest score over the second highest - Tests (qualification: 50 runs)

Player	Runs	HS2	Ratio		Result	Opposition	Ground	Season	Scorecard
W Rhodes (Eng)	92	19	4.84		drawn	v Aust	Manchester	1912	Test 126
WR Hammond (Eng)	336*	83	4.05		drawn	v NZ	Auckland	1932/33	Test 226
AJL Hill (Eng)	124	31	4.00		won	v SAf	Cape Town	1895/96	Test 49
HW Taylor (SAf)	176	50	3.52		won	v Eng	Johannesburg	1922/23	Test 148
R Dravid (India)	270	77	3.51		won	v Pak	Rawalpindi	2003/04	Test 1697
ML Hayden (Aust)	380	113	3.36		won	v Zimb	Perth	2003/04	Test 1661
SR Tendulkar (India)	248*	75	3.31		won	v Bang	Dhaka	2004/05	Test 1725
SM Gavaskar (India)	236*	72	3.28		drawn	v WI	Chennai	1983/84	Test 972
J Hardstaff jnr (Eng)	205*	63	3.25		won	v India	Lord's	1946	Test 276
GT Dowling (NZ)	239	74	3.23		won	v India	Christchurch	1967/68	Test 631

Another cracking solo performance is Dilip Vengsarkar's matchwinning 102 not out against England at Leeds in 1986. The match doesn't appear in our tables because Vengsarkar's 61 in the first innings was the second-highest score of the game. Kiran More was third with 36.

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