The St.John's Test was a statistician's delight as a plethora of records were established on the fifth and final day. Some of them are:
West Indies’ total of 747 is the seventh highest in Test cricket and HIGHEST against South Arica. The previous highest total against South Africa was 654 for 5 by England at Durban in 1938-39.
The combined aggregate of both sides’ first innings in St.John’s Test was 1335 runs [South Africa (588-6d) and West Indies (747)]. Only once before a higher combined aggregate has been recorded in Test cricket history. In the Colombo (RPS) Test in 1997-98, the combined aggregate of first innings of Indian and Sri Lankan teams was 1489 [India (537-8d) and Sri Lanka (952-6d)].
A total of 1462 runs were scored in the match at the loss of 17 wickets @ 86.00 runs per wicket, which is the fifth highest in all Test cricket.
South Africa’s total is the highest first innings total by a side successfully overhauled by the opponent in the second innings of the match. The previous highest such total posted was 537 for 8 declared by India against Sri Lanka in 1997-98 as Sri Lanka went on to score world record 952 for 6 declared.
Eight hundreds were scored in the Test– four from each side. In fact at least one hundred was scored on every day during the Test - two on each of the first three days and one on fourth and fifth days. The eight hundreds is now a new world record of most hundreds in a single Test. The previous record was of seven hundreds made on three separate occasions.
All eleven South African players bowled in West Indies innings during the St. John’s Test with wicket-keeper Mark Boucher ending with the best bowling average for South Africa in the match. Boucher became first South African and only the ninth wicketkeeper in Test history to take a wicket.
A total of 17 centuries were scored in the series – 9 for West Indies and 8 for South Africa. This is the joint third highest number of centuries scored in a Test series.
