Mohammad Shoaib Ahmed: Century knocks in both innings of a Test (14 July 1997)

14 July 1997

Century knocks in both innings of a Test

By Mohammad Shoaib Ahmed

Australia's Steve Waugh wrote his name into the record books with the second century of the match in the third Test at Manchester early this month. He becomes the 39th player to perform the feat on the 45th occasion - the eleventh Australian to do so.

Graham Gooch is the only batsman in Test history to score a triple-hundred and a century in the same Test against India at Lord's in 1990. Four others have a double-hundred and a century in the same Test to their credit. Greg Chappel, Sunil Gavaskar, Lawrence Rowe and Doug Walters.

Graham Gooch's aggregate of 456 runs (333 plus 123) is a world record in Test cricket, outstripping by a long chalk the two previous records for the highest aggregate by a batsman in a Test, Greg Chappell's is the 380 (247 plus 133) Aus v NZ (Wellington '73-74) and Andy Sandham's 375 (325 plus 50) Eng v WI (Kingston '29-30). Sunil Gavaskar holds the record for registering separate hundreds in the same Test on as many as three occasions, whilst England's Herbert Sutcliffe, Australia's Greg Chappell and Alan Border, West Indies' George Headley and Clyde Walcott have each done it twice.

The West Indian Lawrence Rowe is the only one to perform this twin century feat on his Test debut. The Australian skipper Allan Border was the only one to register 150-plus in both innings. The Sri Lankan Duleep Mendis is the only one to hit exactly the same scores in each innings. Two brothers from Australia, Ian and Greg Chapell, created a unique and hitherto unprecedented record of both hitting two separate 'tons' in each innings of the same Test.

The feat of a batsman scoring a century in each innings of a Test has taken place most often at Adelaide (six times) followed by three instances each at Calcutta and at The Oval. It has happened twice at each of eleven other venues. Christchurch, Karachi, Melbourne, Manchester Wellington, Lord's, Johannesburg, Georgetown, Kingston, Port-of-Spain, and Hamilton and once apiece at eleven more centers: Auckland, Bridgetown, Brisbane, Colombo, Dacca (formerly the eastern wing of Pakistan), Durban, Hyderabad (Sindh), Lahore, Madras, Nottingham and Sydney.

Source:: Dawn (https://dawn.com/)