Sinclair fifth New Zealander to score century on Test debut

New Zealand's Matthew Sinclair became the 65th batsman in Test history to score a hundred on Test debut when he notched up an unbeaten 123* on the opening day of the second Test against West Indies at Wellington on Sunday. Sinclair thus became only the fifth New Zealander to score a century on Test debut. The elite club of century makers on Test debut includes 16 Australians, 14 Englishmen, 10 West Indians, 10 Indians, 6 Pakistanis, 2 Sri Lankans, 1 Zimbabwean and 1 South African. West Indies' Lawrence Rowe holds the unique distnction of scoring hundreds in both innings on Test debut.

Sinclair's innings is also the highest by a New Zealander on Test debut obliterating Jack Mills' 117 against England at Wellington in January 1930.

The accompanying table lists the highest individual innings for each country on Test debut :

Score Batsman           Countries         Venue   Season
287   Robert Foster       England v Aus       Sydney      1903-04
214   Lawrence Rowe       WestIndies v NZ     Kingston    1971-72
201*  Brendon Kuruppu     Sri Lanka v NZ      Colombo     1986-87
166   Khalid Ibadulla     Pakistan v Aus      Karachi     1964-65
165*  Charles Bannerman   Australia v Eng     Melbourne   1876-77
163   Andrew Hudson       South Africa v WI   Bridgetown  1991-92
137   Gundappa Viswanath  India v Aus         Kanpur      1969-70
123*  Matthew Sinclair    New Zealand v WI    Wellington  1999-00
121   Dave Houghton       Zimbabwe v Ind      Harare      1992-93