Gilchrist breaks a few speed limits

As centuries go, Adam Gilchrist's was pretty special. The Indian spinners had their tails up having prised out four wickets in the first hour of play on the second day. Gilchrist took a brief while to settle down, then changed the game's complexion in the twinkling of an eye. The close-in field that hemmed him was scattered with a series of murderous pulls, cuts, sweeps and lofted drives as he raced to a second Test century in 108 minutes off 84 balls. Brilliant counter-attacking stuff.

The second fastest hundred by an Australian in terms of balls faced, Gilchrist's was also the quickest against India in Test history, breaking a 26-year-old record. Clive Lloyd's 85 ball century at Bangalore in 1974/75 had hitherto defied all comers. Lloyd's second innings effort of 163 on the fourth day against the spin trio of Chandra, Pras and Venkat came in his debut Test as captain which the Windies comfortably won.

Four other Test hundreds have been struck against India in sub-100 balls. At Faisalabad in 1982-83, Zaheer Abbas made his third century in successive innings of the series, and the quickest of them too, off just 94 balls. At Auckland in 1989-90, Ian Smith smashed a 95-ball hundred en route to making a blistering 173 in 136 balls. Coming in at 131/7, he blazed a trail of destruction, hitting 24 runs in an Atul Wassan over at one stage, and it remains the highest score by a No.9 batsman in Test history. Later in the year at Lord's, Graham Gooch fresh from a triple hundred in the first innings, smacked a 95-ball hundred in the second. When he was finally dismissed for 123 off 113 balls, it took his aggregate in the Test to 456, beating Greg Chappell's previous record by 76 runs.

Going by time occupied, Gilly's ton was the third fastest against India. Wally Hammond's 100-minute effort at Manchester in 1936 still reigns unchallenged. That was on the first day, the second saw an even faster rate of scoring with 588 runs knocked up by both teams, a record for Test cricket. Lloyd's afore-mentioned ton at Bangalore came off 102 minutes to remain second in the line of precedence.

And Gilchrist now also has to his credit the third fastest 100 in India, behind Kapil Dev and Mohd. Azharuddin. Kapil's hurricane blitz against Sri Lanka at Kanpur in 1986/87 came off 74 balls. He marched to his highest Test score of 163 and India scaled their highest Test total of 676/7. Ten years later, Azharuddin precisely equalled that effort with a simply sublime innings against South Africa at Calcutta. Having retired hurt for six late on the second day, he came out firing on all cylinders next morning. Debutant Lance Klusener, then a bowler who could bat a bit, was creamed for five boundaries in a row as Azhar proceeded to 109. Klusener had the final word though with a second innings haul of 8/64, Azhar's scalp included.

For good measure the 29-year-old Australian vice-captain's was also the fastest hundred by a wicketkeeper-batsman in Test history. The earlier record stood in the name of Grenadian Junior Murray who struck his only Test century off 88 balls against New Zealand at Wellington in 1994/95.