Pretty bridesmaids

Two firsts were achieved during the third Test between India and Australia at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi: Gautam Gambhir and VVS Laxman became the first Indian pair to score double-centuries in the same innings, and it was the first time Australia had had double-hundreds made against them. Laxman's unbeaten 200, though, was second-best, at least in numbers, to Gambhir's maiden double.

Double-centuries and ten-wicket match hauls are special feats, but often players have found themselves having achieved the mark only to be outdone by a team-mate, or an opponent, in the same match. For others such as Jim Laker, the competition was with oneself: he bettered his 9 for 37 when he took all ten against Australia at Old Trafford in 1956. This week The List looks at the innings and bowling spells that were bettered in the same match.

In recent years there have been three instances when two Sri Lankan batsmen have gone past 200 in the same innings. Kumar Sangakkara's top score in Tests, 287 against South Africa at the SSC in Colombo in July 2006, turned out to be the second-best in the Test, and the innings, since his team-mate Mahela Jayawardene scored 374, the top Test score by a right-hander. They even did the bulk of the scoring in unison: Jayawardene and Sangakkara added 624, a world-record stand that beat the 576 put on by Sanath Jayasuriya (340) and Roshan Mahanama (225) against India in 1997.

Besides Sangakkara and Jayawardene, only once have two batsmen gone past 250 in the same innings; only four times has it happened in the same Test. When Garry Sobers made his record-breaking 365 not out against Pakistan in Kingston, Conrad Hunte scored 260. The list also includes the two double-centuries in India's famous win over Australia in Adelaide in 2004: Rahul Dravid's 233 set up the victory, and Ricky Ponting's 242 still remains the highest Test score in a losing cause.

Fifty-one: that's the number of times two bowlers have taken five-wicket hauls in the same innings. The last of those instances was in 2006, when Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar took five-fors to send Pakistan hurtling to an innings defeat at Old Trafford.

Bobby Peel's 5 for 18 is the top second-best bowling performance in a Test innings: George Lohmann took 5 for 17 in the same innings as Australia were bowled out for 42 by England in the 1888 Sydney Test - the lowest Test total till then. Thrice in the Triangular Tournament of 1912, Sydney Barnes took a five-wicket haul along with a Frank: on two occasions it was Woolley, and once Foster. In Johannesburg the next year Barnes had figures of 9 for 103 and 8 for 75 in the same Test.

For two debutants, Narendra Hirwani and Bob Massie, their two best innings hauls of their Test careers came in their first Test, against West Indies in Chennai, and England at Lord's.

Many double-acts account for the best and second-best innings figures in a Test, such as Johnny Briggs' astounding figures of 15 for 28 against South Africa in Cape Town in 1889, and Lohmann's 15 for 45 against the same team in 1896. Most bowlers who have had the best and second-best innings analyses in the same Test are from the pre-World War I era. The list is bookended by the performances of opposition bowlers in the famous Faisalabad Test of 1990. Both Chris Pringle and Waqar Younis took seven wickets in an innings - Pringle later admitted he tampered with the ball as he thought Pakistan's bowlers were doing the same - but Waqar's 12 for 130 overshadowed Pringle's 11 for 152, and Pakistan claimed a close win.

Two bowlers have taken ten wickets in a match in 20 Tests, though in none of these instances have both been from the same team. On 16 occasions when an Australian bowler has taken a ten-wicket match haul, an opposition bowler has also done the same.

When Brendon McCullum and James Marshall scored 166 and 161 against Ireland in July this year, they became the first opening pair with 150-plus scores in the same ODI innings. Only twice in an innings, and thrice in an ODI, have two batsmen scored more than 150 each.

The days on which Rahul Dravid came up with his two best ODI scores - 153 in Hyderabad and 145 in Taunton - his team-mates achieved their peaks as well: Sourav Ganguly scored a career-high 183 in Taunton, and Sachin Tendulkar an unbeaten 186 in the other game - the best by an Indian batsman. On both occasions Dravid was involved in 300-plus partnerships, the only two such stands in ODIs.

In the famous Johannesburg ODI in 2006, Ricky Ponting's 164 pushed Australia to 434, the highest ODI total then, but Herschelle Gibbs' 175 helped South Africa achieve what most thought impossible.

In only one ODI has four centuries been scored; 14 have featured three. In 2006, Marcus Trescothick's 121 set Sri Lanka a formidable 322 to win, but centuries for Sanath Jayasuriya (152) and Upul Tharanga (109) in a record opening stand helped their team win at a canter.

On a few occasions two centurions have been surpassed by an opposition batsman. Gary Kirsten's 133 not out guided South Africa to victory at the Wanderers in October 2001 after Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar scored hundreds for India; and Chris Gayle saw West Indies home with his unbeaten 132 at Lord's in July 2004 after the Andrews - Strauss and Flintoff - made centuries.

Gary Cosier and Greg Chappell are the only bowlers to evenly share all ten wickets in an ODI innings, against England at Edgbaston in 1977. Cosier took 5 for 18, and Chappell's 5 for 20 is the best second-best bowling performance in a match. Surprisingly, Australia lost the game, dismissed for 70 chasing 172.

In the course of his short, injury-plagued international career, Shane Bond's best figures of 6 for 23 nearly derailed Australia during the 2003 World Cup, before a late fightback and Brett Lee's 5 for 42 ensured a win for the eventual champions.

Two bowlers who took five-fors in the 1983 World Cup ended on the losing side. Ashantha de Mel had figures of 5 for 39 against Pakistan, but Abdul Qadir's 5 for 44 clinched a 11-run win. Kapil Dev's best ODI bowling figures, 5 for 43, weren't enough for India to win a league game against Australia at Trent Bridge: Ken MacLeay's 6 for 39 sealed an emphatic 152-run win.