Boundary avalanches and scoring rates

A new record at Lahore

13-Jan-2006

Day 5

Sehwag's 254 off 247 balls is the highest Test score made at more than a run a ball. Nathan Astle held the previous record, with his innings of 222 off 168 balls against England at Christchurch.

The 48 boundaries (47 fours and a six) that Sehwag hit in his innings is the third-highest in a Test innings. John Edrich leads the list with 57 boundaries (52 fours and five sixes) against New Zealand at Leeds, while Matthew Hayden comes in next with 49 (38 fours and 11 sixes) against Zimbabwe at Perth. The earlier record for India was also held by Sehwag, who hit 45 boundaries (39 fours and six sixes) in his 309 at Multan. For the full list of most runs in boundaries in an innings click here.

The match scoring rate of 4.93 runs per over is the highest for a Test in which more than 1000 runs have been scored.

Top 5 scoring rates in Tests - (min 1000 runs in a match)
Run-rate	Total runs	Match, Venue	Year
4.93	1089	Pakistan v India, Lahore	2005-06
4.78	1223	South Africa v Australia, Wanderers	1902-03
4.36	1034	England v Australia, Edgbaston	2001
4.32	1176	England v Australia, Edgbaston	2005
4.14	934	India v Sri Lanka, Madras	1982-83

India's scoring rate of 5.30 is the third-highest for a Test innings of more than 400. The two faster efforts both came against Bangladesh: England scored at 5.73 against them at Chester-le-Street, while Sri Lanka managed a rate of 5.36 at Colombo (SSC).

This is the first instance of two triple-century partnerships in a Test. Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan put on 319 while Dravid and Sehwag put on 410.

The 410-run partnership between Sehwag and Rahul Dravid is the second-highest opening partnership in history, falling three runs short of the world record set by Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad against New Zealand at Madras in 1955-56. Some of the other records that this pair set are listed below:

1. Highest opening partnership in Pakistan. The previous best was 298 between Aamir Sohail and Ijaz Ahmed versus West Indies at Karachi, in 1997-98.

2. Highest opening partnership for India against Pakistan, beating the earlier record of 200 between Sunil Gavaskar and Krishnamachari Srikkanth at Chennai in 1986-87.

3. Highest opening stand against Pakistan, beating the previous best of 368 between Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs in 2002-03.

Day 4

When Virender Sehwag goes past 100, he makes sure he gets a big one. His last seven centuries have all been scores of 150-plus. The table below shows Sehwag's appetite for huge hundreds.

Virender Sehwag's last 7 centuries
Runs	Against	Venue	Year
246*	Pakistan	Lahore	2005-06
201	Pakistan	Bangalore	2004-05
173	Pakistan	Mohali	2004-05
164	South Africa	Kanpur	2004-05
155	Australia	Chennai	2004-05
309	Pakistan	Multan	2003-04
195	Australia	Melbourne	2003-04

Sehwag's 182-ball double-century is the second-fastest in terms of balls faced. Click here for the full list of fastest centuries.

Sehwag has scored the fastest hundred by an Indian opener against all countries. Sehwag got to his century off 93 balls, beating the previous record by a whisker - Sunil Gavaskar's ton off 94 balls against West Indies at New Delhi in 1983-84.

Day 2

In one manic over against Harbhajan Singh - which read something like this: 6,6,6,6,2,1 - Shahid Afridi bludgeoned himself and the hapless bowler into the record books. Afridi's rampage fell just one run short of Brian Lara's record of most runs in an over in Test history.

Kamran Akmal's century off 81 balls is the world record for the fastest century by a wicketkeeper in Tests. Adam Gilchrist held the record previously for his two hundreds off 84 balls each, against India at Mumbai and Zimbabwe at Perth.

Shahid Afridi's century off 78 balls is the joint ninth-fastest century in Tests. Incidentally, Afridi scored a century off the same number of balls last year against West Indies at Bridgetown. For the record, Akmal's century is 12th on the list of fastest hundreds.

The third-wicket partnership of 319 runs between Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan is the highest for any wicket at Lahore. This betters the previous Test record of 281 (for the fifth wicket) between Asif Iqbal and Javed Miandad against New Zealand in 1976-77. It is also the third-highest partnership for the third wicket against India by all teams. The stand of 451 between Javed Miandad and Mudassar Nazar at Hyderabad is the highest while the second highest is 324 between Inzamam and Younis Khan at Bangalore The table below shows where this partnership figures among the top third-wicket stands for Pakistan.

Highest third-wicket partnerships for Pakistan
Partners	Runs	Opposition	Venue / Year
Javed Miandad and Mudassar Nazar	451	India	Hyderabad(Sindh) / 1983
Javed Miandad and Qasim Umar	397	Sri Lanka	Faisalabad / 1985
Ijaz Ahmed and Inzamam-ul-Haq	352	Sri Lanka	Dhaka / 1999
Inzamam-ul-Haq and Younis Khan	324	India	Bangalore / 2005
Aamer Sohail and Inzamam-ul-Haq	323	West Indies	Rawalpindi / 1997
Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan	319	India	Lahore / 2006

Younis Khan got the unfortunate tag of being the first batsman to be run-out for 199 in Tests. The table below lists the other batsmen who have been dismissed for 199.

Batsmen dismissed for 199
Batsman	Dismissal	Opposition	Venue / Year
Mudassar Nazar	caught	India	Faisalabad / 1984
Mohammad Azharuddin	lbw	Sri Lanka	Kanpur / 1986
Matthew Elliott	bowled	England	Leeds / 1997
Sanath Jayasuriya	bowled	India	Colombo (SSC) / 1997
Steve Waugh	lbw	West Indies	Bridgetown / 1999

Anil Kumble has dismissed Inzamam-ul-Haq eight times in nine matches. In fact, Kumble has the honour of dismissing Inzamam more times than any other bowler. Click here for a breakup of Inzamam's dismissals by all bowlers prior to the Lahore Test.

Younis Khan continued his love affair with the Indian attack. Now playing in only his fourth Test against them, his batting average stands at a staggering 117.83. His run tally against India is now 707 which includes a career-best 267 in the third Test Bangalore, 147 at Kolkata and 84 not-out at Bangalore (second innings). Ironically, Younis failed miserably in the first Test of the series at Mohali, scoring just 9 and 1 and was on the brink of being dropped. The list below shows where Younis stands among other successful Pakistan batsmen against India.

Pakistan run-scorers against India
Batsman	Tests	Runs	Average
Younis Khan	4*	707	117.83
Zaheer Abbas	19	1740	87.00
Javed Miandad	28	2228	67.51
Muddassar Nazar	18	1431	62.21
Imran Khan	23	1091	51.95

Day 1

Pakistan's total of 326 for 2 on the first day is the third-highest team total on the opening day for all Tests at Lahore. The table below lists the top three:

Highest team scores on Day 1 at Lahore
Total	By	Against	Year
355	Pakistan	New Zealand	2001/02
349	Pakistan	New Zealand	1976/77
326	Pakistan	India	2005/06

* - indicates an ongoing Test

Pankaj Roy Vinoo Mankad Rahul Dravid Virender Sehwag Mohammad Yousuf Shahid Afridi Kamran Akmal Younis Khan Mudassar Nazar Inzamam-ul-Haq Anil Kumble Pakistan India Pakistan vs India India tour of Pakistan

Kanishkaa Balachandran is editorial assistant of Cricinfo. For some of the stats he was helped by Arun Gopalakrishnan.