The solitary centurions

After Andrew Strauss scored the only centuries for England in the recent Tests against West Indies, a reader, Tim Barwell, asked which batsmen had the highest proportion of solitary hundreds: centuries scored in innings in which no one else had made one.

A high percentage of solitary centuries could indicate which batsmen were likely to score big in conditions that got the best of their team-mates. Or they could reveal who spent most of their careers in weak line-ups, carrying the responsibility of scoring most of the team's runs. They could also indicate who was more likely to score the important hundreds. We considered only those who had scored at least ten Test centuries.

Pakistan's Hanif Mohammad scored 12 centuries in 55 Tests and ten (83%) of those were in innings in which no other batsmen made a hundred. Only one of those innings - against West Indies in Karachi in 1959 - resulted in a Pakistan victory but none of them were in defeat. Even during Hanif's most famous innings, a 970-minute 337 that saved Pakistan from defeat in Barbados, the most his team-mates managed in the match was 91.

Hanif is followed by five England batsmen in our table below, led by Geoff Boycott, who scored 18 of his 22 centuries when none of his team-mates managed a hundred in the innings. England won seven and did not lose any of those matches. After Boycott, there's Ian Botham, Allan Lamb, Colin Cowdrey and Graham Gooch, all of whom scored at least 75% of their centuries when no one else did. And several of them had overlapping careers.

Highest % of Test hundreds scored as the sole hundred in the innings (qualification: 10 hundreds)

Player	Span	Mat	Inns	Runs	Ave	100	Sole 100	% Sole 100	Sole 100 win/loss
Hanif Mohammad (Pak)	1952-1969	54	97	3915	43.98	12	10	83.33	1/0
G Boycott (Eng)	1964-1982	108	193	8114	47.72	22	18	81.82	7/0
IT Botham (Eng)	1977-1992	101	161	5200	33.54	14	11	78.57	7/1
AJ Lamb (Eng)	1982-1992	79	139	4656	36.09	14	11	78.57	2/6
MC Cowdrey (Eng)	1954-1975	113	188	7624	44.06	22	17	77.27	8/1
GA Gooch (Eng)	1975-1995	118	215	8900	42.58	20	15	75.00	6/3
AI Kallicharran (WI)	1972-1981	66	109	4399	44.43	12	9	75.00	4/1
BC Lara (ICC/WI)	1990-2006	130	232	11953	52.88	34	25	73.53	5/13
DM Jones (Aus)	1984-1992	51	89	3631	46.55	11	8	72.73	2/0
HP Tillakaratne (SL)	1989-2004	80	131	4545	42.87	11	8	72.73	3/2
N Hussain (Eng)	1990-2004	96	171	5764	37.18	14	10	71.43	5/4
IVA Richards (WI)	1974-1991	121	182	8540	50.23	24	17	70.83	7/2
PA de Silva (SL)	1984-2002	91	159	6361	42.97	20	14	70.00	3/2
GA Headley (WI)	1930-1954	22	40	2190	60.83	10	7	70.00	2/3
M Azharuddin (India)	1984-2000	95	147	6215	45.03	22	15	68.18	5/5
AR Border (Aus)	1978-1994	154	265	11174	50.56	27	18	66.67	2/3
DC Boon (Aus)	1984-1996	107	190	7422	43.65	21	14	66.67	4/1
DI Gower (Eng)	1978-1992	117	204	8231	44.25	18	12	66.67	3/4
MP Vaughan (Eng)	1999-2008	82	147	5719	41.44	18	12	66.67	2/3
AJ Stewart (Eng)	1990-2003	133	235	8463	39.54	15	10	66.67	5/0
TM Dilshan (SL)	1999-2012	76	129	4722	40.01	12	8	66.67	4/2
A Flower (Zim)	1992-2002	63	112	4794	51.54	12	8	66.67	0/7
JG Wright (NZ)	1978-1993	82	148	5334	37.82	12	8	66.67	2/1

The batsman with the most solitary centuries is Brian Lara - 25 out of 34 Test hundreds. Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar are next with 23 and 21 hundreds. For the latter half of his career, Lara was part of a struggling West Indies team, and he and Shivnarine Chanderpaul did most of the run scoring. Only five of Lara's 25 solitary hundreds resulted in West Indian victories, and 13 were in defeat. Perhaps the best example of Lara scoring runs in vain was in Sri Lanka in 2001 - he made 688 in three Tests but Sri Lanka won two matches by 10 wickets and the third by an innings.

If we remove the ten-century qualification then Australia's Victor Trumper scored seven out of eight tons in innings in which he was the only centurion, while South Africa's Roy McLean, England's Jack Russell, who played in the 1920s, and Mohammad Ashraful had five out of five.

The table below contains a list of batsmen with the lowest proportion of solitary hundreds, but considering even Don Bradman features, it is an indication of the powerful batting line-ups they were part of, rather than a tendency to score low-pressure hundreds.

For example, only one of AB de Villiers' 13 Test hundreds has come in an innings where no other South African celebrated a century - they lost that match, against Australia at Wanderers in 2009. For his other centuries, de Villiers usually had Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla or Ashwell Prince also scoring at least one.

And only two of Adam Gilchrist's hundreds were solitary because he usually came in at No. 7, after someone above had already put Australia on top, to flatten the opponent with an aggressive innings. Gilchrist's solo hundreds were at Newlands in 2002 and Fatullah in 2006, and both times he pulled Australia out of first-innings trouble and steered them towards victory.

Lowest % of Test hundreds scored as the sole hundred in the innings (qualification: 10 hundreds)

Player	Span	Mat	Inns	Runs	Ave	100	Sole 100	% Sole 100	Sole 100 win/loss
AB de Villiers (SA)	2004-2012	74	125	5457	49.16	13	1	7.69	0/1
AC Gilchrist (Aus)	1999-2008	93	137	5570	47.60	17	2	11.76	2/0
VVS Laxman (India)	1996-2012	134	225	8781	45.97	17	4	23.53	2/1
IR Bell (Eng)	2004-2012	77	129	5383	47.63	16	4	25.00	3/0
SC Ganguly (India)	1996-2008	111	188	7212	42.17	16	4	25.00	2/0
RJ Shastri (India)	1981-1992	76	121	3830	35.79	11	3	27.27	0/1
HM Amla (SA)	2004-2012	59	103	4464	46.98	14	4	28.57	0/2
IM Chappell (Aus)	1964-1980	75	136	5345	42.42	14	4	28.57	1/2
HH Gibbs (SA)	1996-2008	90	154	6167	41.95	14	4	28.57	1/2
ST Jayasuriya (SL)	1991-2007	108	188	6973	40.07	14	4	28.57	2/2
GC Smith (ICC/SA)	2002-2012	99	174	8042	49.64	24	7	29.17	5/0
PD Collingwood (Eng)	2003-2011	67	115	4259	40.56	10	3	30.00	1/1
AL Hassett (Aus)	1938-1953	43	69	3073	46.56	10	3	30.00	1/0
RB Simpson (Aus)	1957-1978	62	111	4869	46.81	10	3	30.00	1/0
WM Lawry (Aus)	1961-1971	67	123	5234	47.15	13	4	30.77	3/1
MEK Hussey (Aus)	2005-2012	73	127	5708	50.07	16	5	31.25	3/1
MJ Clarke (Aus)	2004-2012	83	138	6097	48.77	19	6	31.58	2/2
AR Morris (Aus)	1946-1955	46	79	3533	46.48	12	4	33.33	3/0
Javed Miandad (Pak)	1976-1993	123	189	8832	52.57	23	8	34.78	5/1
JL Langer (Aus)	1993-2007	105	182	7696	45.27	23	8	34.78	7/0
AG Prince (SA)	2002-2011	64	104	3665	41.64	11	4	36.36	3/0
DG Bradman (Aus)	1928-1948	50	80	6996	99.94	29	11	37.93	8/1
JH Kallis (ICC/SA)	1995-2012	152	257	12379	56.78	42	16	38.10	5/2
DR Martyn (Aus)	1992-2006	67	109	4406	46.37	13	5	38.46	4/0
R Dravid (ICC/India)	1996-2012	164	286	13288	52.31	36	14	38.89	5/4