Sachin
Tendulkar on the threshold of another monstrous record
By
Sachin Tendulkar makes
a welcome return to Ranji Trophy,
he stands on the threshold of yet another milestone
– highest First-class hundreds by an Indian.
Sachin Tendulkar is on the
verge of yet another record. And this, yet again, has to do with centuries.
In international cricket Tendulkar
is already far ahead of any other man in the history of the game in terms of
centuries. He stands head and shoulders above the rest in Test cricket, and, at
least waist above in One-Day Internationals. By a simple corollary, the total
number of international hundreds also belongs to him – and this total reached a
century of its own after a prolonged wait.
However, as the master batsman
walks back into the long neglected arena of Ranji Trophy, he finds himself just
three short of the national record for the highest number of First-class
centuries. Sunil Gavaskar finished his illustrious career with 81
from 348 matches. Tendulkar’s tally currently reads 78 from 294 outings.
The English monopoly
The record for First-class cricket
centuries has traditionally been an English monopoly. With the gamut of county
cricket that used to be played, it is hardly surprising that most of the
leaders on the all time list are from England .
Jack Hobbs heads the pack with a
mindboggling 199 hundreds from as many 834 matches! WG Grace got 124 in
870. The county season saw numerous teams take on each other more than
once every year till not long back.
Hence, among the 25 batsmen who managed a century of First-class centuries, 21 are English. Of the four others, Viv Richards, Zaheer Abbas and Glenn Turner spent a large part of their careers in the county circuit, playing 507, 459 and 455 First-class matches in their respective careers.
Hence, among the 25 batsmen who managed a century of First-class centuries, 21 are English. Of the four others, Viv Richards, Zaheer Abbas and Glenn Turner spent a large part of their careers in the county circuit, playing 507, 459 and 455 First-class matches in their respective careers.
Of course, the one remaining
batsman in the list got there because of a rather incurable habit of scoring
hundreds. The great Don Bradman managed 117 in his career, in just 295 matches.
The great Indian batting leaders
Among the Indians, who play
distinctly less First-class cricket than those engaged in the county game,
there are seven who have scored more than 50 hundreds.
Unsurprisingly, these seven names
would be on most lists of great Indian batsmen.
Indian batsmen with more than 50
First-class centuries
Batsman
|
M
|
Runs
|
Ave
|
100s
|
50s
|
# Inn/FC
100s |
# Inn/FC
50+ scores |
|
SM Gavaskar
|
348
|
563
|
25834
|
51.46
|
81
|
105
|
6.95
|
3.03
|
SR Tendulkar
|
294
|
467
|
24452
|
58.35
|
78
|
111
|
5.99
|
2.47
|
RS Dravid
|
298
|
497
|
23794
|
55.33
|
68
|
117
|
7.31
|
2.69
|
VS Hazare
|
238
|
367
|
18740
|
58.38
|
60
|
73
|
6.12
|
2.76
|
DB Vengsarkar
|
260
|
390
|
17868
|
52.86
|
55
|
87
|
7.09
|
2.75
|
M Azharuddin
|
229
|
343
|
15855
|
51.98
|
54
|
74
|
6.35
|
2.68
|
VVS Laxman
|
265
|
433
|
19520
|
51.5
|
54
|
97
|
8.02
|
2.87
|
As mentioned, Tendulkar is just three away from Gavaskar’s record, and has played 54 matches less than the original Little Master.
A closer scrutiny of the numbers
reveals further differentiators between him and the other men on the list.
In spite of spending most of his
career away from the vastly easier arena of First-class cricket, more often
engaged in battling the more lethal bowlers of Test cricket, Tendulkar is still
ahead in a number of areas.
A monstrous 65.38% of his 78
First-class hundreds have come in Test matches.
And even though he has played far
less non-Test First-class matches than the other Indian batsmen in the list,
Tendulkar still ends up being way more frequent in scoring centuries (one in
every 5.99 First-class innings) and fifties (one in every 2.47 First-class
innings).
These are further signs of his
unwavering quality and consistency at the highest level.
The leading Indian batsmen split
into Tests and Non-Test First-class matches
Batsman
|
Tests
|
Non
Test FC |
Test 100s
|
Non-Test 100s
|
% 100
in Tests
|
#
Test 100
|
#
Non-Test FC 100
|
#
Test 50+
|
#
Non-Test FC 50+
|
SM Gavaskar
|
123
|
265
|
33
|
48
|
40.74
|
6.29
|
7.43
|
2.71
|
2.71
|
SR Tendulkar
|
190
|
104
|
51
|
27
|
65.38
|
6.16
|
5.67
|
2.71
|
2.10
|
RS Dravid
|
163
|
135
|
36
|
32
|
52.94
|
7.94
|
6.59
|
2.89
|
2.45
|
VS Hazare
|
30
|
178
|
7
|
53
|
11.67
|
7.43
|
5.94
|
3.25
|
2.69
|
DB Vengsarkar
|
117
|
143
|
17
|
38
|
30.91
|
10.88
|
5.39
|
3.56
|
2.28
|
M Azharuddin
|
99
|
130
|
22
|
32
|
40.74
|
6.68
|
6.13
|
3.42
|
2.31
|
VVS Laxman
|
433
|
54
|
17
|
37
|
31.48
|
13.24
|
5.62
|
3.08
|
2.67
|
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