Tendulkar poised to overtake a Bradman milestone
In the forthcoming Test series against England, Sachin Tendulkar has the opportunity to go past Don Bradman and break the record for most double-century partnerships in Tests
Travis Basevi and George Binoy
04-Jul-2007
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During the recent Test series against Bangladesh, Rahul Dravid was involved in the 66th century partnership of his career and broke the record for being part of the most 100-run stands in Tests. In the forthcoming Test series against England, Sachin Tendulkar has the opportunity to go past Don Bradman and break the record for most double-century partnerships in Tests.
Both batsmen are currently on fourteen 200-run stands, though Bradman took fewer than half the number of matches Tendulkar needed to rack them up. There have been only twelve 400-plus partnerships to date in Tests and Bradman was part of two; one with Bill Ponsford and the other with Sid Barnes. The highest partnership Tendulkar's been involved in is 353, with VVS Laxman at Sydney in 2004.
The only major Test nation to not have a representative among the top 20 entries in our table below is New Zealand. In fact, no New Zealand batsman appears in our list of players involved in the most century stands either. England, too, have a poor record in 200-run partnerships. Wally Hammond and Len Hutton are the only Englishmen in the table; no one after 1955 makes the cut.
Pships
200
100-199
50-100
High
DG Bradman (Aus)
52
80
180
14
21
49
451
SR Tendulkar (India)
137
220
451
14
47
75
353
Javed Miandad (Pak)
124
189
395
13
37
78
451
ML Hayden (Aus)
89
159
333
13
33
74
279
RT Ponting (Aus)
110
183
337
12
50
80
327
SR Waugh (Aus)
168
260
590
11
53
87
385
JL Langer (Aus)
105
182
351
11
38
64
327
BC Lara (ICC/WI)
131
232
508
9
53
84
322
G Kirsten (SA)
101
176
380
9
36
67
272
JH Kallis (ICC/SA)
107
182
430
9
31
89
315
Click here for most 100-run partnerships by a batsman.
Matthew Hayden's 13 double-hundred stands puts him in second place in our table after Bradman and Tendulkar while his long-time opening partner, Justin Langer, is sixth with 11. Together, however, they have given Australia an opening partnership of more than 200 on six occasions, the most for any pair.
Bradman and Ponsford batted together only ten times and only thrice did they put on more than a hundred together. But on each of those occasions, they converted it into a massive partnership - 229 against West Indies at Brisbane in 1931; and 451 at The Oval and 388 at Leeds during the 1934 Ashes.
100-199
50-100
High
ML Hayden, JL Langer (Aus)
122
6
8
28
255
CG Greenidge, DL Haynes (WI)
148
4
12
26
298
MA Atherton, GA Gooch (Eng)
57
4
5
12
263
SC Ganguly, SR Tendulkar (India)
61
4
6
12
281
Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan (Pak)
36
4
4
10
363
DG Bradman, WH Ponsford (Aus)
10
3
0
1
451
WM Lawry, RB Simpson (Aus)
64
3
6
18
382
Javed Miandad, Shoaib Mohammad (Pak)
23
3
5
7
248
M Azharuddin, SR Tendulkar (India)
42
3
6
5
222
PA de Silva, ST Jayasuriya (SL)
19
3
1
2
243
Click here for most 100-run partnerships by the same pair.
Although no single Englishman from the second half of the 20th century featured in the table for most double-hundred partnerships, Mike Atherton and Graham Gooch put on 200 runs four times together and are tied with three other prolific pairings in second place.
A double-century stand in an ODI is a rare occurrence and it's those who occupy top-order slots and bat for the majority of the innings who feature in out table. Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting, with six 200-run stands, are in first place ahead of Rahul Dravid who has five. Dravid, however, has been involved in the only two 300-plus stands in ODIs; with Ganguly at Taunton , and with Tendulkar at Hyderabad in 1999.
Mat
Inns
Pships
200
100-199
50-100
High
SR Tendulkar (India)
388
378
764
6
72
130
331
SC Ganguly (Asia/India)
295
285
586
6
55
107
318
RT Ponting (Aus/ICC)
280
272
503
6
49
106
237
R Dravid (Asia/ICC/India)
319
295
621
5
49
116
331
ST Jayasuriya (Asia/SL)
395
384
669
4
46
106
286
ME Waugh (Aus)
244
236
473
3
37
88
219
Saeed Anwar (Pak)
247
244
497
3
23
106
230
Inzamam-ul-Haq (Asia/Pak)
378
350
724
3
38
124
263
Click here for most 100-run partnerships by a batsman.
Gordon Greenidge-Desmond Haynes, and Hayden-Adam Gilchrist are among the most prolific pairings in one-day cricket and their stats are bizarrely similar. Both pairs have batted together 103 times and Greenidge-Haynes average 52.5 while Hayden and Gilchrist are two points lower at 50. Their highest partnerships are similar too. Both pairs have never shared a 200-run stand, 192 being Greenidge-Haynes's highest and 172 being the Australians' best. Gilchrist and Hayden, however, have managed one more century stand than what Haynes and Greenidge did.
| Partners | Pships | 100+ | 200 |
|---|
100-199
50-100
High
SC Ganguly, SR Tendulkar (India)
161
22
3
19
28
258
AC Gilchrist, ML Hayden (Aus)
103
16
0
16
26
172
CG Greenidge, DL Haynes (WI)
103
15
0
15
25
192
MS Atapattu, ST Jayasuriya (SL)
144
14
1
13
26
237
A Flower, GW Flower (Zim)
88
12
0
12
17
161
R Dravid, SR Tendulkar (India)
90
11
2
9
12
331
R Dravid, SC Ganguly (Asia/India)
86
10
2
8
18
318
DL Haynes, RB Richardson (WI)
103
9
0
9
21
167
A Jadeja, SR Tendulkar (India)
41
9
0
9
9
176
NJ Astle, SP Fleming (NZ)
118
9
0
9
17
193
Click here for most 200-run partnerships by the same pair.
If there's a particular List that you would like to see, e-mail us with your comments and suggestions.
Travis Basevi is the man who built Statsguru. George Binoy is an editorial assistant on Cricinfo