Showing up your team-mates

Virender Sehwag was the difference between India and Sri Lanka in the second Test in Galle. While other batsmen from both sides struggled to make match-winning contributions, Sehwag scored 201 out of India's first-innings total of 329. This week's Ask Steven said it was the smallest total containing a double-century, and the List decided to expand on that thought. We're looking at lowest totals in which a player made a landmark score i.e. 250, 200, 150, 100 and so on. You'll notice that Sehwag appears a fair number of times.

Australia's 543 for 8 against England at the MCG in 1966 is the lowest score to contain a triple-century. Bob Cowper struck his career-best of 307 in reply to England's 485. His innings spanned 12 hours and was the only triple-hundred in Australia until Matthew Hayden scored 380 against Zimbabwe in 2003-04. There wasn't enough money in cricket at the time to keep a merchant banker and stockbroker in the game, and Cowper played his last Test at the age of 28.

Both of Sehwag's triple-centuries also appear in the table. He scored 319 off 304 balls out of India's 627 against South Africa in Chennai in 2008, and after he was dismissed, with the score on 481, India lost nine wickets for 146 runs. His maiden triple-hundred - 309 in Multan in 2004 - contributed to India's match-winning total of 675.

On his next tour to Pakistan in 2005-06, Sehwag scored 254 off 247 balls in Lahore and fell three runs short of breaking the world record for the highest opening stand with Rahul Dravid, who scored 128 off 233 balls. India declared soon after Sehwag's dismissal and the total of 410 is the lowest score with an individual contribution of at least 250.

The third entry in the table above - Dennis Amiss' 262 at Sabina Park in 1974 - orchestrated one of the great escapes in Test cricket. West Indies had a first-innings lead of 230 and England were struggling at 218 for 5 at the end of the fourth day. The night-watchman, Derek Underwood, batted for 75 minutes on the final day but Alan Knott's cheap dismissal left England 41 runs ahead with three wickets in hand. It was up to Amiss, who added 72 and 49 for the eighth and ninth wicket, and England eventually finished on 432 for 9 with a lead of 202. Amiss was unbeaten on 262; England's next best score was John Jameson's 38.

It is perhaps an indication of West Indies' reliance on Brian Lara that three of his double-hundreds appear in the table of lowest totals, which include an individual contribution of 200 or more. Lara scored 220 out of West Indies' first-innings score of 390 against Sri Lanka at the SSC in 2001, and a hundred in the second, but Sri Lanka still won by ten wickets. In 2003, he made 202 at the Wanderers but West Indies scored only 410, and conceded a first-innings lead of 151 to South Africa, eventually losing by 189 runs. In 2005, Lara broke Allan Border's record for the most Test runs during his 226 in Adelaide but West Indies scored only 405, with the next-highest contribution being Dwayne Bravo's 34.

Sehwag surfaces once again, at No. 5, in the table of lowest totals in which a player made 150 or more. India had begun the final day of the 2008 Adelaide Test with nine wickets in hand and a lead of 8. Sehwag attacked the Australian attack and scored 151 out of India's total of 269, with the next highest contribution coming from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who had scored 20. The Test was saved by the time Sehwag was dismissed on 253 for 6.

Pakistan's 135 against India in Lahore in 1982 is the lowest score in Test cricket to contain a century. The match ended after Mohsin Khan reached his hundred in Pakistan's second innings. He scored 101 and, during the course of the innings, became the first Pakistan batsman to score 1000 runs in a year.

The lowest completed innings to include a century is New Zealand's 159 against England in Christchurch in 1963. John Reid scored 100, Graham Dowling's 22 was the next highest score, and eight batsmen were dismissed in single figures.