Solitary partnerships, and Lara's one-man shows

Bangladesh received another drubbing in the second Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo but during the course of their defeat by an innings and 90 runs, Mohammad Ashraful and Mushfiqur Rahim achieved a rare feat, one that had been performed only three times in Test history. Ashraful and Mushfiqur's partnership of 191 for the sixth wicket in the second innings produced more runs than all of Bangladesh's other 19 wickets added together in the match. This week we look at instances of batsmen outperforming their team-mates in Tests.

Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan added 363 for the third wicket in Pakistan's total of 538 in the first innings against England at Leeds in 2006. The rest of the partnerships amounted to only 330 and Yousuf and Younis's second innings stand yielded only 16 runs. Pakistan were defeated by 167 runs and the partnership of 363 became the highest in Tests in a losing cause.

One partnership outscoring all other 19 partnerships for a team in a Test (Qualification: completed team innings only)

Partners	Runs	Others	Diff	Opposition	Ground	Season	Scorecard
SL Campbell, AFG Griffith (WI)	276	186	90	v New Zealand	Hamilton	1999/00	Test 1477
SE Gregory, GHS Trott (Aus)	221	179	42	v England	Lord's	1896	Test 50
Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan (Pak)	363	330	33	v England	Leeds	2006	Test 1813
Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim (Ban)	191	170	21	v Sri Lanka	Colombo (PSS)	2007	Test 1838

The Hamilton Test between New Zealand and West Indies in 1999 provides a bizarre instance of one West Indian stand scoring more than the total of all the other partnerships. The openers, Adrian Griffth and Sherwin Campbell, gave West Indies a superb start by batting for nearly the whole of the first day, adding 276 for the first wicket. They began to implode after that and lost ten wickets for 89 runs in the first innings and were dismissed for 97 in the second.

There have been only five Tests where a single batsman scored more than the combined efforts of his team-mates in the entire match. Brian Lara's and Andy Flower's efforts against Sri Lanka and South Africa respectively in 2001 are the Test records for the most runs scored by a player in a losing cause. Before those two matches, the last time a player scored more than all his team-mates put together was when Jack Russell scored 251 (both innings) and the rest of England managed only 240 against South Africa at Durban in 1923.

One batsman outscoring the sum of his team-mates's innings in a Test (Qualification: completed team innings only)

Player	Score1	Score2	Others	Diff	Opposition	Ground	Season	Scorecard
BC Lara (WI)	221	130	267	84	v Sri Lanka	Colombo (SSC)	2001/02	Test 1572
A Flower (Zim)	142	199*	301	40	v South Africa	Harare	2001/02	Test 1562
JH Sinclair (SA)	106	4	91	19	v England	Cape Town	1898/99	Test 59
CAG Russell (Eng)	140	111	240	11	v South Africa	Durban	1922/23	Test 152
C Bannerman (Aus)	165*	4	164	5	v England	Melbourne	1876/77	Test 1

Don Bradman has outscored his team-mates by the highest amount in a single innings of a Test. He scored 334 against England at Leeds while the rest of Australia put together scored only 218, a difference of 116 runs.

When Lara scored 400 against England at Antigua, the other West Indians made 335 with 16 extras which is why that entry does not figure in the table below. However, four of his other innings - 221 against Sri Lanka in 2001, 196and 176 against South Africa in 2005, and 226 at Adelaide in 2006 appear among our top 20, an indication of how West Indies' batting has often been a one-man show.

Outscoring all nine team-mates in an innings by the greatest amount in Tests (Qualification: completed team innings only)

Player	Score	Others	Diff	Opposition	Ground	Season	Scorecard
DG Bradman (Aus)	334	218	116	v England	Leeds	1930	Test 196
SM Nurse (WI)	258	145	113	v New Zealand	Christchurch	1968/69	Test 652
DG Bradman (Aus)	299*	191	108	v South Africa	Adelaide	1931/32	Test 215
ST Jayasuriya (SL)	253	148	105	v Pakistan	Faisalabad	2004/05	Test 1716
VVS Laxman (India)	167	73	94	v Australia	Sydney	1999/00	Test 1481
C Bannerman (Aus)	165*	72	93	v England	Melbourne	1876/77	Test 1
BC Lara (WI)	221	143	78	v Sri Lanka	Colombo (SSC)	2001/02	Test 1572
GA Gooch (Eng)	154*	77	77	v West Indies	Leeds	1991	Test 1171
SJ McCabe (Aus)	232	158	74	v England	Nottingham	1938	Test 263
GM Turner (NZ)	223*	149	74	v West Indies	Kingston	1971/72	Test 693
DN Sardesai (India)	212	140	72	v West Indies	Kingston	1970/71	Test 680
Saeed Anwar (Pak)	188*	116	72	v India	Kolkata	1998/99	Test 1444
L Hutton (Eng)	202*	131	71	v West Indies	The Oval	1950	Test 326
RG Pollock (SA)	209	140	69	v Australia	Cape Town	1966/67	Test 613
BC Lara (WI)	196	127	69	v South Africa	Port of Spain	2004/05	Test 1747
CG Greenidge (WI)	134	66	68	v England	Manchester	1976	Test 779
MJ Slater (Aus)	123	57	66	v England	Sydney	1998/99	Test 1439
BC Lara (WI)	176	110	66	v South Africa	Bridgetown	2004/05	Test 1749
BC Lara (WI)	226	162	64	v Australia	Adelaide	2005/06	Test 1773
L Hutton (Eng)	156*	95	61	v Australia	Adelaide	1950/51	Test 330
CL Walcott (WI)	220	159	61	v England	Bridgetown	1953/54	Test 383

In one-day internationals, it's harder to outscore all your team-mates combined because of the over-restriction and the margin is often narrow but Herschelle Gibbs and Andrew Jones managed it when they scored only 59 and 47 against Pakistan at Sharjah in 2000 and 1990 respectively. Shoaib Akhtar took 3 for 9 and helped dismiss South Africa for 101; and Waqar Younis took 5 for 20 as New Zealand collapsed for 74 during the semi-final of the Austral-Asia Cup.

Outscoring all nine team-mates in an innings by the greatest amount in ODIs (Qualification: completed team innings only)

Player	Score	Others	Diff	Opposition	Ground	Season	Scorecard
SB Styris (NZ)	141	69	72	v Sri Lanka	Bloemfontein	2002/03	ODI 1944
DL Houghton (Zim)	142	88	54	v New Zealand	Hyderabad (Decc)	1987/88	ODI 454
DR Martyn (Aus)	116*	66	50	v New Zealand	Auckland	1999/00	ODI 1571
ME Trescothick (Eng)	137	87	50	v Pakistan	Lord's	2001	ODI 1722
HH Gibbs (SA)	118	79	39	v England	Durban	2004/05	ODI 2225
GS Chappell (Aus)	108	71	37	v New Zealand	Auckland	1981/82	ODI 144
JM Davison (Can)	111	79	32	v West Indies	Centurion	2002/03	ODI 1963
RA Smith (Eng)	129	98	31	v India	Gwalior	1992/93	ODI 813
HH Gibbs (SA)	59*	29	30	v Pakistan	Sharjah	1999/00	ODI 1582
AH Jones (NZ)	47	19	28	v Pakistan	Sharjah	1989/90	ODI 629
AJ Stewart (Eng)	100*	72	28	v West Indies	Nottingham	2000	ODI 1618
NV Knight (Eng)	125*	98	27	v Pakistan	Nottingham	1996	ODI 1111
AJ Lamb (Eng)	81	55	26	v Pakistan	Melbourne	1984/85	ODI 314
KO Otieno (Kenya)	69	43	26	v Zimbabwe	Harare	2005/06	ODI 2344
RL Powell (WI)	76	51	25	v India	Toronto	1999	ODI 1499
RB Richardson (WI)	122	98	24	v Pakistan	Sharjah	1991/92	ODI 682
DL Hemp (Ber)	76*	53	23	v India	Port of Spain	2006/07	ODI 2542
GW Flower (Zim)	77	55	22	v Pakistan	Peshawar	1996/97	ODI 1136
GM Hamilton (Scot)	76	54	22	v Pakistan	Chester-le-Street	1999	ODI 1453
RP Arnold (SL)	103	81	22	v Zimbabwe	Bulawayo	1999/00	ODI 1528
GW Flower (Zim)	105*	84	21	v Pakistan	Harare	2002/03	ODI 1906