McCullum stands tall on a day of tumbling records

Stats highlights from the fourth day of the Wellington Test between New Zealand and India

Feb 17, 2014, 9:02 AM

Brendon McCullum scored his second double-century of the series, New Zealand v India, 2nd Test, 4th day, Wellington, February 17, 2014

Brendon McCullum is only 19 runs away from the first triple-hundred in Tests by a New Zealand batsman. His current score of 281 is the second highest by a New Zealand batsman in Tests. Martin Crowe holds the record for the highest Test score for the team - 299 against Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in 1990-91.

McCullum's score is the fourth-highest by a batsman in the second innings. Should he score a triple-century, he will be only the second batsman to do so in the second innings. Only Hanif Mohammad has scored a triple-century in the second innings, against West Indies in Bridgetown, way back in 1957-58. There have been only eight other scores of 250 or more in the second innings. Crowe is the only other New Zealand batsman in this list.

This is McCullum's third score of 200 or more in Tests and all of them have come against India. He has become only the second New Zealand batsman with three scores of 200 or more. Stephen Fleming is the other, with three scores of 200-plus. McCullum has scored 1203 runs at 70.76 against India from ten Tests.

McCullum has faced 525 deliveries in his marathon innings. This is now the most deliveries faced in an innings by a batsman in Tests in New Zealand, beating the 524 balls faced by England's Clive Radley against the hosts at the Eden Park in 1977-78.

McCullum's innings has lasted approximately 727 minutes, which is the longest any New Zealand batsman has batted, beating the 704 minutes that Glenn Turner batted for, against West Indies in Bridgetown in 1971-72. This is also the longest a batsman has batted in Tests in New Zealand, beating Shoaib Mohammad's 720 minute-long vigil at the crease at the same venue in 1988-89. Click here for a list of the longest innings in terms of time by batsmen in Tests.

McCullum has scored 514 runs already in this series - only the sixth instance of a batsman scoring 500 or more runs in a two-Test series. McCullum's tally is currently the fourth highest, the highest being Sanath Jayasuriya's 571 runs, also against India in this series.

McCullum has now scored the second-highest number of runs by a New Zealand captain in a Test series. He is 32 runs short of breaking John Reid's record, who scored 546 runs in a five-match series in South Africa in 1961-62. This is also the second instance of a New Zealand captain scoring 500 or more runs in a Test series.

This is also the fifth-highest runs scored by a captain in a three-Test (or less) series. Graham Gooch holds the record for scoring the most runs in such series - he scored 752 runs, also against India, in this series in 1990-91.

BJ Watling's third Test century was only the fourth hundred by a New Zealand No. 7 in the second innings. Watling fell just two runs short of the highest score by a New Zealand No. 7 in the second innings - 126 by Chris Cairns against India in Hamilton in 1998-99. Watling also completed 1000 Test runs during his innings. He now has 1092 runs at 35.22 from 21 Tests.

Watling's 124 is the second hundred and the highest score by a New Zealand wicketkeeper in the second innings. McCullum is the only other wicketkeeper for them to hit a hundred in the second innings.

McCullum and Watling's partnership of 352 runs is the highest for the sixth wicket in Tests, beating the 351-run partnership between Mahela Jayawardene and Prasanna Jayawardene against India in Ahmedabad in 2009.

This partnership was the fourth highest for any wicket to come in the second innings of a team. The highest partnership also came at the same venue between Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones when they added 467 runs for the third wicket against Sri Lanka in 1991.

New Zealand's sixth and seventh wickets have added 477 runs in this innings - this is the highest added by the two wickets in an innings in Tests. The previous highest added by the sixth and seventh wickets in an innings was 414 runs by Australia in this Test way back in 1936-37.

The total of 474 runs scored by New Zealand's No. 5 to No. 8 in this innings is the highest in an innings by four batsmen batting at these positions. The previous highest was also against India, when Carl Hooper (136), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (136), Ridley Jacobs (118) and Mervyn Dillon (43) together scored 433 in this Test in 2002.

In the last Test, New Zealand scored 503 and 105, registering a deficit of 398 runs between their innings - their second-highest such deficit in Tests. They are quite close to overhauling that deficit in the ongoing Test. The current difference between their first innings and second innings scores is 372, which is the second-highest difference between their two innings with a higher second-innings score.

New Zealand's lead of 325 runs is already the highest a team batting first has managed after trailing by 200 or more after the first innings. The previous-highest such lead was also by New Zealand, at the same venue, against Sri Lanka in 1990-91, when they led by 323 runs.

New Zealand's lead is well past the highest a team has scored in the fourth innings to win a Test at the Basin Reserve - 277 by Pakistan against the hosts in 2003-04. However, India will not be asking for too much should they hope to salvage a draw from this Test. The previous 18 instances of a team batting second taking a lead of 200 or more in the first innings, only to concede a similar lead when the opposition has batted again, have all ended in a draw.

Brendon McCullum BJ Watling India New Zealand New Zealand vs India India tour of New Zealand

Shiva Jayaraman is a sub-editor (stats) at ESPNcricinfo.com