Herschelle Gibbs is a rare gem among international openers. His rumbustious batting style may have been honed in one-day cricket, but it has translated perfectly into Test matches as well. Of his contemporaries, only Australia's Matthew Hayden is anything like as effective in both forms of the game. Others, such as Sanath Jayasuriya and Marcus Trescothick, are markedly less assured when faced with Test-match conditions.

Today, Gibbs clattered 20 fours and a six in his first 102 runs, which adds up to 86 in boundaries alone. At the time, only one Test centurion had made a higher percentage of their total runs in boundaries - Australia's Gary Gilmour, who lamped exactly the same number of fours and sixes in his solitary Test century, against New Zealand at Christchurch in February 1977. But Gilmour was out immediately afterwards for 101, so he shaded that record by a fraction of a percent.

With a century under his belt, however, Gibbs clearly had murder on his mind as he shifted up yet another gear. But, after one particularly chancy assault on James Anderson, that old curmudgeon Gary Kirsten felt compelled to intervene. Still, it didn't dent Gibbs's exuberance too much. Of his remaining 81 runs, 74% of them came in 15 crashing fours.

Player        Team  versus  Season   Fours  Sixes Runs    %