Big hundreds without big partnerships

One of our readers, Willem Bekker, emailed with a question last week: "In the last Test of the South Africa-Australia series in Cape Town, Ashwell Prince and AB de Villiers both scored 150 or more without ever batting together in the match. This seemed quite unique to me and I would just like to know if this has ever happened before." He was right, it had happened only on four previous occasions in Tests. So we dug up a list of matches (Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 internationals) in which two batsmen made large scores in the same innings but weren't at the crease at the same time, not even for one ball.

The first instance of two players scoring more than 150 in the same innings, but without batting together, was in the timeless Oval Test against Australia in 1938. Maurice Leyland made 187 at No. 3 and added 382 for the second wicket with Len Hutton, who amassed Test cricket's highest score, 364. Leyland was the next wicket to fall, and therefore never batted with the No. 7, Joe Hardstaff jnr, who contributed an unbeaten 169 to England's world-record total of 903 for 7.

It's perhaps unremarkable that No. 3 and No. 7 did not bat in each other's company while making large scores, especially when someone else plays a massive innings as well, but it's rare that No. 2 misses No. 3 when both batsmen make more than 150. It happened during the Lord's Test in 1993: Michael Slater and Mark Taylor stacked up 260 for the first wicket and it was Slater who fell first for 152. David Boon walked in and added to England's misery, scoring 164 as Australia amassed 632 for 4.

Batsmen scoring > 130 in an innings without batting together - Tests

Team	Score	Player	Runs	Player	Runs	Opposition	Start Date	Scorecard
England	903/7d	M Leyland	187	J Hardstaff jnr	169*	v Australia	Aug 20, 1938	Test 266
India	676/7	SM Gavaskar	176	N Kapil Dev	163	v Sri Lanka	Dec 17, 1986	Test 1061
New Zealand	595	SB Styris	170	CL Cairns	158	v South Africa	Mar 18, 2004	Test 1689
Australia	632/4d	MJ Slater	152	DC Boon	164*	v England	Jun 17, 1993	Test 1224
South Africa	651	AG Prince	150	AB de Villiers	163	v Australia	Mar 19, 2009	Test 1916
West Indies	559/6d	CH Gayle	175	CL Hooper	149	v Zimbabwe	Jul 19, 2001	Test 1551
West Indies	585	RC Fredericks	169	CH Lloyd	149	v Australia	Dec 12, 1975	Test 765
India	588/8d	V Sehwag	180	M Kaif	148*	v West Indies	Jun 10, 2006	Test 1806
Sri Lanka	522	ST Jayasuriya	148	DPMD Jayawardene	167	v South Africa	Jul 20, 2000	Test 1504
South Africa	600/3d	HH Gibbs	147	JH Kallis	157*	v Zimbabwe	Sep 7, 2001	Test 1562
Australia	514/4d	KC Wessels	141	DW Hookes	143*	v Sri Lanka	Apr 22, 1983	Test 955
West Indies	631/8d	RB Kanhai	138	GS Sobers	153	v India	Mar 7, 1962	Test 526
England	519	JB Hobbs	142	M Leyland	137	v Australia	Mar 8, 1929	Test 180
South Africa	658/9d	HH Gibbs	142	G Kirsten	137	v West Indies	Dec 26, 2003	Test 1679
Australia	601/7d	MA Taylor	136	SR Waugh	177*	v England	Jun 8, 1989	Test 1121
Pakistan	548/5d	Saeed Anwar	169	Inzamam-ul-Haq	135*	v New Zealand	Feb 17, 1994	Test 1249
Australia	542	RB Simpson	153	KR Stackpole	134	v South Africa	Dec 31, 1966	Test 613
England	592/8d	BC Broad	162	CJ Richards	133	v Australia	Nov 28, 1986	Test 1059
England	546/6d	AJ Strauss	142	MJ Prior	131*	v West Indies	Mar 6, 2009	Test 1914
South Africa	604/6d	GC Smith	139	JH Kallis	130*	v West Indies	Jan 16, 2004	Test 1682

All the totals in the table above are more than 500 as they'd have to be for two batsmen to make hundreds without batting with each other. The lowest among them is Australia's 514 for 4 declared against Sri Lanka in Kandy in 1983. Kepler Wessels opened the innings and scored 141. He was dismissed with the score on 213, after which David Hookes came in at No. 5 and raced to 143 not out off 152 balls.

Two batsmen haven't scored centuries in an ODI innings without having batted with each other, for a little while at least - the 50-over format hasn't proved long enough for that, yet. And so we've looked at batsmen who scored 75 or more without batting with each other in an ODI. Two centuries, though, nearly happened during the 2007 World Cup match between Australia and South Africa in St Kitts. Opening the innings, Matthew Hayden powered his way to 101 off 68 balls before falling with the score on 167. In came Michael Clarke and scored 92 off 75 balls before he was run out in the 47th over, with plenty of time left to reach a hundred.

Batsmen scoring > 80 in an innings without batting together - ODIs

Team	Score	Player	Runs	Player	Runs	Opposition	Start Date	Scorecard
Australia	377/6	ML Hayden	101	MJ Clarke	92	v South Africa	Mar 24, 2007	ODI 2552
India	329/7	SR Tendulkar	99	R Dravid	92*	v England	Aug 24, 2007	ODI 2613
Sri Lanka	307/6	ST Jayasuriya	98	SHT Kandamby	91*	v India	Sep 12, 2009	ODI 2887
Sri Lanka	339/4	ST Jayasuriya	96	PA de Silva	90	v Pakistan	May 24, 1997	ODI 1212
South Africa	418/5	LL Bosman	88	MV Boucher	147*	v Zimbabwe	Sep 20, 2006	ODI 2420
India	387/5	V Sehwag	85	Yuvraj Singh	138*	v England	Nov 14, 2008	ODI 2774
England	391/4	ME Trescothick	85	PD Collingwood	112*	v Bangladesh	Jun 21, 2005	ODI 2252
India	350/6	SR Tendulkar	93	R Dravid	85*	v Sri Lanka	Oct 25, 2005	ODI 2286
India	413/5	V Sehwag	114	Yuvraj Singh	83	v Bermuda	Mar 19, 2007	ODI 2542
India	413/5	SC Ganguly	89	Yuvraj Singh	83	v Bermuda	Mar 19, 2007	ODI 2542
India	350/6	IK Pathan	83	R Dravid	85*	v Sri Lanka	Oct 25, 2005	ODI 2286
South Africa	418/5	AN Petersen	80	MV Boucher	147*	v Zimbabwe	Sep 20, 2006	ODI 2420
Sri Lanka	339/4	ST Jayasuriya	96	A Ranatunga	80	v Pakistan	May 24, 1997	ODI 1212

The Twenty20 format doesn't have enough time for several batsmen to make large scores. In fact, the only instance when a team managed more than two half-centuries in an innings was the India-England encounter during the World Twenty20 in Durban. And it needed a record-smashing innings from Yuvraj Singh to make it happen. India's openers, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, had scored brisk half-centuries in that match before Yuvraj added a third off only 12 balls, including six sixes off a Stuart Broad over. Yuvraj came in after Sehwag and Gambhir had been dismissed and clouted 58 off 16 deliveries.

Batsmen scoring > 40 in an innings without batting together - T20Is

Team	Score	Player	Runs	Player	Runs	Opposition	Start Date	Scorecard
India	218/4	V Sehwag	68	Yuvraj Singh	58	v England	Sep 19, 2007	T20 40
India	218/4	G Gambhir	58	Yuvraj Singh	58	v England	Sep 19, 2007	T20 40
South Africa	211/5	JH Kallis	48	AB de Villiers	79*	v Scotland	Jun 7, 2009	T20 94
Pakistan	191/7	Imran Nazir	49	Younis Khan	48	v Bangladesh	Sep 2, 2007	T20 18
Sri Lanka	260/6	ST Jayasuriya	88	J Mubarak	46*	v Kenya	Sep 14, 2007	T20 27
Sri Lanka	260/6	DPMD Jayawardene	65	J Mubarak	46*	v Kenya	Sep 14, 2007	T20 27
New Zealand	190	BB McCullum	45	CD McMillan	44	v India	Sep 16, 2007	T20 32
New Zealand	198/5	AJ Redmond	63	SB Styris	42	v Ireland	Jun 11, 2009	T20 102
West Indies	208/8	S Chanderpaul	41	MN Samuels	51	v England	Jun 28, 2007	T20 15
Sri Lanka	158/5	TM Dilshan	48	DPMD Jayawardene	41*	v New Zealand	Jun 16, 2009	T20 112
Australia	221/5	AC Gilchrist	48	CL White	40*	v England	Jan 9, 2007	T20 13
Australia	221/5	RT Ponting	47	CL White	40*	v England	Jan 9, 2007	T20 13
England	193/8	P Mustard	40	OA Shah	47	v New Zealand	Feb 7, 2008	T20 54