Wednesday, December 26, 2007

100 Test Heroes

Sourav Ganguly today became only the seventh Indian to complete century of Test matches.Interestingly he is the oldest among Indians to accomplish this feat at 35 years 171 days, breaking Sunil Gavaskar’s Indian record. Sachin Tendulkar is the youngest Indian to do so, while Rahul Dravid took least time (from the date of debut) in playing his 100th Test.


Indian players with 100 Test appearances

Player          First Test                100th Test   Time Span    Age
Sunil Gavaskar  Mar 6,1971                Oct 17,1984  13Y 225D   35Y 99D
                v W.Indies,Port-of-Spain  v Pakistan,Lahore 
D.Vengsarkar    Jan 24,1976               Nov 24,1988  12Y 305D   32Y 232D
                v New Zealand,Auckland    v New Zealand,Mumbai 
Kapil Dev       Oct 16,1978               Nov 15,1989  11Y  30D   30Y 313D
                v Pakistan,Faisalabad     v Pakistan,Karachi 
S.Tendulkar     Nov 15,1989               Sep 5,2002   12Y 294D   29Y 134D
                v Pakistan,Karachi        v England,The Oval 
Anil Kumble     Aug 9,1990                Dec 18,2005  15Y 131D   35Y  62D
                v England, Manchester     v Sri Lanka,Ahmedabad 
Rahul Dravid    Jun 20,1996               Mar 18,2006   9Y 271D   33Y  66D
                v England, Lord's         v England,Mumbai 
Sourav Ganguly  Jun 20,1996               Dec 26,2007  11Y 189D   35Y 171D
                v England, Lord's         v Australia, Melbourne

Note: Dravid's tally included World XI-Australia Super 'Test' played at Sydney in October 2005.His 100th game for India was against West Indies at St.John's in June 2006



The following table shows the career aggregate of Indians before the start of their 100th Tests:

                   Inns Runs   Hs   Avg  100s 50s 0s Wkts Avg
Sunil Gavaskar     174  8394  236* 52.46  30  36  10   1  177.00
Dilip Vengsarkar   159  6331  166  46.21  17  31  12   0    -
Kapil Dev          143  4087  163  31.20   6  21  12 347   29.02
Sachin Tendulkar   159  8351  217  57.99  30  33  10  27   43.74
Anil Kumble        126  1687   88  16.87   0   3  13 478   28.03
Rahul Dravid       167  8492  270  58.16  22  41   6   1   39.00
Sourav Ganguly     161  6346  239  43.17  15  30   9  32   49.47

Note: M Azharuddin ended his career with 99 Tests having scored 6215 runs (avg 45.04) with 22 centuries and 21 fifties



Kumble is the only player to see India WINNING in his 100th Test. Gavaskar, Kapil and Tendulkar’s 100th Tests were drawn games, whereas Vengsarkar and Dravid ended on the losing sides.

The following table lists Indian players performances in their 100th Tests along with the result of that Test:

                   Batting     Bowling   Fielding  Result for India
                 Inns1 Inns2 Inns1 Inns2   Ct
Sunil Gavaskar    48    37     -    -       3      Drawn
Dilip Vengsarkar  25     0     -    -       2      lost by 136 runs
Kapil Dev         55     -   4-69  3-82     0      Drawn
Sachin Tendulkar  54     -   0-4    -       0      Drawn
Anil Kumble       21    29*  2-87  5-89     0      won by 259 runs
Rahul Dravid      52     9    -     -       2      lost by 212 runs
Sourav Ganguly    To be seen
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