The best of the lot

Sachin Tendulkar added yet another record to his glittering Test career when he became the first batsman to score 50 centuries. At the end of his ninth match, when he scored his first century, he averaged just under 43. Thereafter, his 10th, 20th and 30th centuries came in intervals of 46, 47 and 52 innings respectively. Injuries and a form slump meant that it took him 93 innings to progress from his 30th and 40th century. A remarkable resurgence in performance since 2008 has meant his last ten centuries have come in just 34 innings.

Tendulkar's spurt of hundreds over the last few years has improved his innings-per-century figure considerably. At one stage, he had scored 39 hundreds in 250 innings, an average of 6.41 innings per hundred. Since then, he has notched up 11 in 36 to bring his overall innings-per-century average to 5.72. Among batsmen with at least 25 hundreds, only Don Bradman has a better average.

In the 50 innings in which he scored hundreds, Tendulkar averages 214.26, though this number has been increased by the fact that he has remained not out 16 times. Jacques Kallis and Steve Waugh are the others who have averages of more than 200, and both have also remained not out on more than ten occasions - Kallis has 13 undefeated hundreds, while Waugh has 15.

Tendulkar's hallmark has been his consistency and ability to score in all conditions. He averages over 60 in England and Sri Lanka and nearly 59 in Australia. His record isn't as good in Pakistan, where he averages just over 40 with one century. Zimbabwe remains the only country where Tendulkar has not scored a century.

Tendulkar's batting has been remarkably effective across all four innings of a match. He is the top century scorer in the first, second and third innings, and is second only in the number of centuries scored in the fourth innings. The table lists the top century getters in each match innings in Tests.