Late limited-over centurions

During Bangladesh's tour of Zimbabwe in August, Hamilton Masakadza scored his maiden one-day century in the third ODI in Bulawayo, which was the home side's only victory in the five-match series. It was Masakadza's 71st one-dayer and the hundred came eight years and 18 days after he had scored his first Test century, a match-saving 119 on debut against West Indies in Harare. So this week we've found out which batsmen had to endure the longest wait between maiden centuries in Tests and ODIs, and vice versa. We've also looked at the largest gaps between maiden five-wicket hauls in Tests and four-wicket hauls in ODIs.

Sunil Gavaskar wasted little time in notching up the first of many Test hundreds. He scored 116 in only his third innings, against West Indies at Bourda, the first of his four centuries on the 1971 tour of the Caribbean. In one-day cricket, however, Gavaskar's third innings was the infamous 36 not out against England at Lord's in 1975. He got into the nineties thrice but never made more than 92, until he finally reached three figures against New Zealand in Nagpur during the 1987 World Cup, 16 years after his first Test hundred. Gavaskar did it in style too, cracking 103 off 88 balls to ensure that India won their group on run-rate ahead of Australia. It was the penultimate match of Gavaskar's 108-ODI career.

Mark Boucher made his Test debut in October 1997 and his one-day debut in January 1998. He didn't take too long to score his first Test century - 100 against West Indies at Centurion Park in 1999 - but his maiden ODI hundred took ages. He didn't score one until 2006, when in his 220th ODI he bludgeoned 147 off 68 balls against Zimbabwe in Potchefstroom. Boucher, however, was lucky to get there for he was dropped twice before reaching his century and four times afterwards. His 219-ODI century drought was the longest before a maiden century until Shaun Pollock made 135 for the Africa XI against the Asia XI in Bangalore in 2007 - his 285th ODI.

The gaps between a player scoring his maiden ODI century and then his first Test century are much smaller than those in the table above. Manoj Prabhakar tops the table with a gap of seven years and 259 days. He scored his maiden ODI hundred in his 11th game - 106 against Pakistan in Jamshedpur in 1987 - but reached a Test hundred only in 1994, in his 36th Test, after making his debut a decade earlier. To be fair, though, Prabhakar spent most of his early innings at Nos. 7 and 8 before moving up the order.

Most of the top bowlers in the table below, which contains players with long gaps between their first five-for in Tests and their first four-wicket haul in ODIs, are those who began their Test careers before, or shortly after, one-day internationals began, and at a time when they were few and far between. Imran Khan took his maiden five-wicket haul in his ninth Test against Australia at the MCG in 1977. It wasn't until March 1985, eight years later, that he took his first five-for in ODIs when he wrecked the Indian batting line-up with figures of 6 for 14 in Sharjah. India were dismissed for 125 but Imran's performance was in vain after Pakistan were shot out for 87.

Sanath Jayasuriya has taken only 98 Test wickets, compared to 316 in ODIs, and his first of two five-wicket hauls came against Zimbabwe in Galle in 2002. Jayasuriya and Muttiah Muralitharan took five wickets each in the first innings and four each in the second as Zimbabwe were routed by 315 runs. His first five-for in ODIs, though, had come long ago - Jayasuriya took 6 for 29 against England in Moratuwa in 1993, the best figures by a Sri Lankan in ODIs until Murali took 7 for 30 against India in Sharjah in 2000.

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