The most prolific in partnerships

A record that had stood for 52 years was broken when Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie resumed their run-fest on the second day of the second Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong. Having scored 405 runs on the first, a record for a day on which no wicket fell, Smith and McKenzie added nine more to break the world-record opening stand of India's Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy, who made 413 against New Zealand in Chennai in 1956.

That stand also happened to be the fourth occasion on which Smith was involved in a partnership of over 300, which puts him one behind Don Bradman's record tally of five. An edition of the List last year had looked at players with the most double-century stands; this week we look at triple-century stands, and the percentage that stands of 100-, 200- and 300-plus form in the total partnerships for a player.

In 180 partnerships during his 80 Test innings, Bradman managed five triple-century stands, including two with Bill Ponsford in successive Tests against England in 1934, at Headingley and The Oval. Smith and Herschelle Gibbs, who was dropped in favour of McKenzie for the Bangladesh series, come next with four each. Three of those were between Gibbs and Smith, all nearly in the span of one year, with two in 2003 and one in 2004 - making them the only pair with three triple-century stands in Tests. Current players dominate the list. Kumar Sangakkara, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Younis Khan have all been part of three triple-century stands, and so have two of Pakistan's finest batsmen - Javed Miandad and Inzamam-ul-Haq.

Bradman and Smith lead in the list of players with the highest ratio of 300-plus stands to their overall partnerships. A surprise No. 2 , though, is New Zealand's Terry Jarvis: his career stats show an unimpressive 625 runs from 22 innings, but his best of 182 came in a 387-run stand with Glenn Turner against West Indies in Guyana in 1972. Ponsford comes in next, followed by Smith, whose top-order colleagues Gibbs, Hashim Amla and Boeta Dippenaar also figure among the top 20.

All of Smith's four triple-century partnerships have come while opening the batting, a record. Gibbs was his partner in crime in three of those, and McKenzie in the most recent one. All three are at the top of the table for such stands, and except Smith and Gibbs, no one has managed two opening partnerships of 300-plus.

Though he played just over a third of the innings that Sachin Tendulkar has, Bradman is still one ahead on the list of players with most 200-run partnerships. The presence of Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Justin Langer and Steve Waugh on the list perhaps indicates why Australia have been the team to beat in the last decade.

Bradman also has the highest percentage of double-century stands among his total partnerships, while Gautam Gambhir, known more for his limited-over exploits of late, sneaks in in second place. Bradman has been part of 14 double-hundred partnerships, while Gambhir has shared two - 218 in Kanpur with Virender Sehwag against South Africa in November 2004, and 259 with Rahul Dravid against Bangladesh in Chittagong the following month. Recent Australian players feature prominently yet again. Another Australian in the list in Gary Gilmour, famous for his 6 for 14 and unbeaten 28 in the 1975 World Cup semi-final against England. Gilmour was involved in his only double-century stand - with Doug Walters - when he scored his only hundred in Tests, against New Zealand in Christchurch.

Click here for the highest percentage of 200-run partnerships by a player in ODIs.

Although Rahul Dravid and Tendulkar top the list for most century partnerships, it's another Indian player of their generation who astonishingly pips Bradman among players with highest percentage of 100-plus stands. Vinod Kambli's Test career ran only from 1993 to 1995, lasting 17 Tests. It wasn't uneventful, though, and he scored 1084 runs at 54.20, with two double-hundreds and two hundreds in his first seven matches. Of 37 partnerships in his career, nine were century stands, while Bradman had 35 from 180. However, the only partnership Kambli was involved in that is widely remembered perhaps is his then record 664-run stand with Tendulkar in school-level cricket.

Click for the most 100-run opening partnerships by a player in Tests and in ODIs.
Click for the most and the highest percentage of 100-run partnerships by a player in ODIs.

An astounding eight of the top eight run-getters in Tests feature in the top eight for players with most 50-run partnerships. The list is headed by Allan Border, followed by Dravid, Tendulkar and Waugh, with Brian Lara, the leading Test run-scorer, at No. 6. The top 30 includes quite a few opening batsmen.

Bradman wrests the top spot from Kambli in the list of highest percentage of 50-run stands by a player, which features many old-timers and Sadagoppan Ramesh, another Indian left-hand batsman who failed to live up to his initial promise.