Statistical Highlights of the QPO Test

Fri, Apr 25, '03

 

Which batting records did West Indies captain Brian Lara smash during the second Test match on his home ground in Trinidad & Tobago? How many times has Lara been dismissed in the nineties? How many batting records did Australian vice-captain Ricky Ponting feature in?

As usual, CaribbeanCricket.com statistician Zito sifts through the record books to find the highlights of the Queen's Park Oval Test...

Ricky Ponting (206) & Darren Lehmann (160) shared in a record 315 runs third wicket partnership against West Indies. The previous best for the 3rd wicket against West Indies was 295 runs between McDonald and Harvey at Kingston, 1954-55. Their partnership is Australia record and the 11th highest all time in a Test match for the third wicket.

Ponting and Lehmann's partnership is the 7th highest for partnership of over 300 runs on the first day of a Test match. The record is 451 for 2nd wicket between Ponsford & Bradman v England at The Oval, 1934.

Ponting recorded the 16th century and highest score in his 66-match career. This was Ponting's third century against West Indies, following 117 last week at Georgetown and 104 at Bridgetown in 1998-99. He became the only fifth and eighth Australian to record a double century against West Indies in the Caribbean and all grounds respectively. The other Australians who have scored a double century against West Indies are:

DG Bradman 223 at Brisbane, 1930-31
RN Harvey 204 at Kingston, 1954-55
WM Lawry 210 at Bridgetown, 1964-65 & 205 at Melbourne, 1968-69
RB Simpson 201 at Bridgetown, 1964-65
KD Walters 242 at Sydney, 1968-69
DM Jones 216 at Adelaide, 1988-89
SR Waugh 200 at Kingston, 1994-95

Lehmann recorded his maiden Test century in his 10th match. His previous highest score was 98 in his second match against Pakistan at Rawalpindi, 1998-99.

Ponting & Adam Gilchrist (101*) shared in a 171 runs fourth wicket partnership, the 3rd and 8th highest against West Indies in the West Indies and all grounds respectively.

Gilchrist recorded his 8th Test century in his 41st match and his first against the West Indies. His previous highest score against West Indies was 87 at Sydney in 2000-01.

Ponting's partnerships with Lehmann and Gilchrist were only the 11th instance where one batsman participated in 300 and 100 run partnerships in one innings of a Test match. The last such instance was VVS Laxman's (Ind) 117-run partnership with SC Ganguly and 376 runs with RS Dravid in 2000-01.

Brian Lara (91) and his Trinidadian colleague Daren Ganga (117) shared a third wicket partnership of 158 runs, their second consecutive third wicket century partnership following their 185 runs partnership at Georgetown last week.

Lara's 91 was the fifth time he was dismissed in the nineties in Tests. His other dismissals in the nineties were:

96 v Pakistan at Port-of-Spain, 1992-93
91 v India at Chandigarh, 1994-95
93 v England at Georgetown, 1997-98
91 v South Africa at St. John?s 2000-01

Ganga recorded his second successive century in 19 matches following his 113 in Guyana last week. He became the first Trinidadian in 20 years to score a Test century at home -- Larry Gomes was the last to achieve this feat against India in 1982-83. Ganga became the only fifth Trinidadian to score a Test century at Port-of-Spain. The other Trinidadian centurions at Port-of-Spain were:

AG Ganteaume 112 v England, 1947-48
JB Stollmeyer 104* v India, 1952-53
CA Davis 105 v India, 1970-71
HA Gomes 123 v India, 1982-83

Dillon recorded the 25th Test duck in his 33rd match. He is now fourth behind Walsh (47), Warne (27), Ambrose (26) & McGrath (26) for players with most ducks in a Test career. Dillon (43.85%) still tops the table for players batting at least 30 innings with more than 15% of ducks in career.

Matthew Hayden (100*) recorded his 13th Test century in 40th match and his second against the West Indies.

It was the only second match in Steve Waugh's 158-match career that he did not bat in his team's innings, the other instance was against Pakistan at Sydney in 1989-90.

Brian Lara (122) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (34) shared a fourth wicket partnership of 106 runs.

Lara's 122 was his first Test century in 10 matches at his home ground, Port-of-Spain and his fifth as captain. It was his eighth hundreds against Australia, just one short of Ritchie Richardson's record of nine tons on either side. He became the sixth Trinidadian to score a Test century at Port-of-Spain, following his colleague Ganga (117) in the 1st innings. He became the only third West Indian and the 19th player to score 20 Test centuries in a career. The other West Indians to have score at least 20 Test centuries are Gary Sobers (26) and Viv Richards (24).

Lara equalled Sachin Tendulkar's record of eight Test centuries in losing efforts.

In the second innings, Lara passed Gary Sobers as the West Indian with highest run aggregate in the Caribbean. He overhauled Sobers' aggregate of 4,075 and now has 4,126 runs at an average of 55.01.

In the second innings, Lara became the highest run scorer on either side in the West Indies v Australia rubber. He now has 2286 runs at an average of 51.95. The other players with at least 2000 runs are: Richards (2266), Haynes (2233), Lloyd (2211), Richardson (2175) and Border (2052).

The WI-Aus match at Port-of-Spain was the only 14th instance of a side winning a Test match after declaring both its innings closed. South Africa was the last team to do it when they defeat West Indies by 147 runs at Cape Town in 1998-99.

Australia retained the Frank Worrell Trophy that they have held since 1995 by wining the match at Port-of-Spain for the 4th time in twelve appearances at this venue. West Indies now has three wins and five draws at the QPO. This is the third Test match loss at Port-of-Spain for West Indies, the last time that the side won a Test match at Port-of Spain was in the 1999-2000 rubber against Zimbabwe. West Indies' record against Australia now read, 31 wins, 44 lost, 1 tie and 21 draws. In WI, the record is now: 13 wins, 14 lost, and 13 draws.