Dravid's virtuoso act and other one-man shows

Rahul Dravid may have modestly attributed India's first Test series victory in the West Indies since 1970-71 to a team-effort, but you only have to peek at the scorecard to know that he was its chief architect. On a pitch where all the other Indian batsmen floundered twice, Dravid conjured up a brace of defiant half-centuries - two of his best innings, he called them - and set up an Indian victory. In the first innings, he scored 81, Kumble was second highest with 45 and no other batsman passed 20. The second essay was worse, not even Kumble reached 20 but Dravid strode magnificently to 68. This week, we look at matches where a batsman outperformed his team-mates, and the opposition too, by a country mile.

Charles Bannerman scored Test cricket's first century in the first Test held at the MCG in March 1877, a game in which everyone else struggled. Bannerman scored 165 in the first innings and had to stop there only because he was forced to retire after getting hit on the index finger of his right hand by George Ulyett. Australia reached 245 and Tom Garrett's 18 was the second-highest score of the innings.

Long before the victory at Adelaide in 2003, India had a good shot at taking the lead in a Test series in Australia but they were thwarted by an innings of magnificent doggedness from Allan Border. Trailing by 183, Australia had slipped to 161 for 6 with more than a day's play remaining. Border single-handedly took Australia into the fifth day, and with bad weather forecast, he frustrated India for 115 minutes with last man Dave Gilbert. India - Sunil Gavaskar, who made 8 off 54 balls, in particluar - showed no urgency in chasing 125 and rain washed out the final session with the score on 59 for 2.

Highest ratio in an innings of the highest score over the second highest - Tests (qualification: 50 runs)

Player	Runs	HS2	Ratio		Score	Opposition	Ground	Season	Scorecard
C Bannerman (Aust)	165*	18	9.17		245	v Eng	Melbourne	1876/77	Test 1
GA Gooch (Eng)	91*	11	8.27		138/3	v NZ	The Oval	1978	Test 828
AR Border (Aust)	163	20	8.15		308	v India	Melbourne	1985/86	Test 1033
DJ Cullinan (SAf)	103	13	7.92		200	v SL	Centurion	1997/98	Test 1414
N Kapil Dev (India)	129	17	7.59		215	v SAf	Port Elizabeth	1992/93	Test 1206
GN Yallop (Aust)	121	16	7.56		198	v Eng	Sydney	1978/79	Test 846
GP Thorpe (Eng)	119*	17	7.00		226	v WI	Bridgetown	2003/04	Test 1694
DL Amiss (Eng)	262*	38	6.89		432/9	v WI	Kingston	1973/74	Test 732
BE Congdon (NZ)	61*	9	6.78		88/4	v India	Christchurch	1967/68	Test 631
SR Tendulkar (India)	122	18	6.78		219	v Eng	Birmingham	1996	Test 1327

Kapil Dev's last Test century was a face-saving innings against South Africa in December 1992. India had conceded a deficit of only 63 but were still in danger of losing by an innings. At 31 for 6, India were on the verge of a hammering but Kapil, despite an injured right hand, scored 129 out of the team's 215 and averted abject humiliation. Kapil had pulled off rescue acts before, famously against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells during the 1983 World Cup. On that occasion, the top five batsmen had collectively added 15 before Kapil blew everyone away with 175 off 138 balls.

Another fantastic one-day hundred when everyone else failed is Alec Stewart's effort against West Indies at Nottingham in 2000 but it ended in defeat. Chris Gayle's 37 was the highest score in West Indies' 195 and in England's innings no one got even close to that. No-one but Stewart, that is. They began the last over needing five to get with three wickets in hand. Stewart, batting on 100, ran out Paul Franks and watched, stranded at the other end, as the last two batsmen fell meekly to Gayle.

Highest ratio in an innings of the highest score over the second highest - ODIs (qualification: 50 runs)

Player	Runs	HS2	Ratio		Score	Opposition	Ground	Season	Scorecard
N Kapil Dev (India)	175*	24	7.29		266/8	v Zimb	Tunbridge Wells	1983	ODI 216
IVA Richards (WI)	189*	26	7.27		272/9	v Eng	Manchester	1984	ODI 264
Saeed Anwar (Pak)	101	17	5.94		196/8	v NZ	Lahore	1990/91	ODI 636
JM Davison (Can)	111	19	5.84		202	v WI	Centurion	2002/03	ODI 1963
RP Arnold (SL)	103	19	5.42		213	v Zimb	Bulawayo	1999/00	ODI 1528
DR Martyn (Aust)	116*	22	5.27		191	v NZ	Auckland	1999/00	ODI 1571
L Klusener (SAf)	103*	20	5.15		212/7	v NZ	Auckland	1998/99	ODI 1409
WU Tharanga (SL)	120	24	5.00		257/9	v Eng	Lord's	2006	ODI 2384
Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pak)	85*	17	5.00		131/3	v NZ	Sharjah	2000/01	ODI 1709
GR Viswanath (India)	75	15	5.00		190	v WI	Birmingham	1979	ODI 61

Andrew Jones' resistance against Waqar Younis' pace at Sharjah in 1990 resulted in a fascinating scorecard. The other ten New Zealand batsmen made 5,1,4,0,4,4,0,1,0,0, while Jones was the last man out on 47. These tables have a cut-off of 50 runs otherwise Jones would have been top by some distance.

The Cape Town Test between South Africa and England in 1896 is one of only nine instances in Test cricket where a batsman has scored a century without there being another fifty in the match. England batsman Arthur Hill's 124 in that match outscored South Africa, who made 115 and 117, and he also outscored his team mates who collected only 123 between them in an innings win. Hill capped the performance by taking the last four wickets to give himself the remarkable figures of 8-4-8-4.

Highest ratio in an match of the highest score over the second highest - Tests (qualification: 50 runs)

Player	Runs	HS2	Ratio		Result	Opposition	Ground	Season	Scorecard
W Rhodes (Eng)	92	19	4.84		drawn	v Aust	Manchester	1912	Test 126
WR Hammond (Eng)	336*	83	4.05		drawn	v NZ	Auckland	1932/33	Test 226
AJL Hill (Eng)	124	31	4.00		won	v SAf	Cape Town	1895/96	Test 49
HW Taylor (SAf)	176	50	3.52		won	v Eng	Johannesburg	1922/23	Test 148
R Dravid (India)	270	77	3.51		won	v Pak	Rawalpindi	2003/04	Test 1697
ML Hayden (Aust)	380	113	3.36		won	v Zimb	Perth	2003/04	Test 1661
SR Tendulkar (India)	248*	75	3.31		won	v Bang	Dhaka	2004/05	Test 1725
SM Gavaskar (India)	236*	72	3.28		drawn	v WI	Chennai	1983/84	Test 972
J Hardstaff jnr (Eng)	205*	63	3.25		won	v India	Lord's	1946	Test 276
GT Dowling (NZ)	239	74	3.23		won	v India	Christchurch	1967/68	Test 631

Another cracking solo performance is Dilip Vengsarkar's matchwinning 102 not out against England at Leeds in 1986. The match doesn't appear in our tables because Vengsarkar's 61 in the first innings was the second-highest score of the game. Kiran More was third with 36.