Zimbabwe’s Brendan Taylor has joined a unique club of players to have scored a century in each innings of a Test match on two occasions, following his scores of 110 and 106 not out against Bangladesh in Dhaka, writes SIMON LEWIS.
It’s quite an achievement to score a century, so scoring two in one match is incredible. Scoring a century in each innings of a Test match … well, that’s quite simply phenomenal!
When Zimbabwe lost the second Test of their two-Test series to Bangladesh on Thursday, Taylor’s century in each innings was the 84th time a batter has achieved this in the 2,325 Test matches that have been contested in men’s cricket since 1877.
The Two-Ton Club
These 84 ‘pairs of centuries’ have, in fact, been scored by just 67 different players; 11 players have twice scored a century in each innings of a Test match, while three more have achieved this on three occasions.
Taylor is the only Zimbabwean to have achieved this feat, while South Africa’s Jacques Kallis, India’s Rahul Dravid and England’s Herbert Sutcliffe have also pulled two tons out the bag in a match once for their respective countries.
For the West Indies, Sir Clyde Walcott and George Headley have both achieved this feat, as did Kumar Sangakkara and Aravinda de Silva for Sri Lanka, while Australia leads the list of Two-Ton Club members, with Allan Border, Greg Chappell and Matthew Hayden all having ‘done the double’ twice.
Surprisingly, two of the greatest (and most prolific) batsmen in the history of Test cricket, Sir Don Bradman and Brian Lara, are not members of the Two-Ton Club, as each man scored a century in both innings of a Test on only one occasion. That other batting great, Sachin Tendulkar, failed to score a century in both innings of a Test match despite playing more Tests (200) and scoring more runs (15,921) and centuries (51) than any other player in the history of the game.
Three times the charm
Astonishingly, three players have scored a century in both innings of a Test match on three occasions and, you’ve guessed it – two of them are from Australia! Bad boys Ricky Ponting and David Warner fly the Aussie flag in the Three-Ton Club, while India’s Sunil Gavaskar completes the trio.
It’s all relative
Two sets of brothers have scored centuries in both innings of a Test match, those being Zimbabwe’s Flower brothers (Andy and Grant) and the Chappells of Australia (Ian and Greg).
Greg did the feat twice within the space of 20 months … and the first time he did it was in 1974 against New Zealand, when he and brother Ian (then the Australian captain) both scored a century in each innings of the Test in Wellington, sharing stands of 264 and 86 in either inning.
Mom must have been so proud!
Two players scoring a century in each innings of the same match
Aside from the Chappell brothers in 1974, there have been four other instances when two players scored a century in both innings of the same match.
Azhar Ali and Misbah-ul-Haq achieved this together for Pakistan against Australia in Abu Dhabi in 2014, with the other three occasions being Denis Compton (England) and Arthur Morris (Australia) in Adelaide in 1947, Asanka Gurusinha (Sri Lanka) and Andrew Jones (New Zealand) in Hamilton in 1991, and Virat Kohli (India) and David Warner (Australia) in Adelaide in 2014.
Bonus numbers to know
Duleep Mendis holds the record for the highest identical scores in each innings of a Test after he scored 105 and 105 for Sri Lanka against India in Chennai in 1982. It was only his sixth Test and the first century was his maiden Test century. Mendis went on to add just two more Test centuries in his 24-match career.
The only other player to have scored the same score in both innings of a Test was Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq, who notched up 101 and 101 not out against Australia in Abu Dhabi in 2014.
The most prolific country in terms of players who are members of the Two-Ton Club is Australia, with a whopping 21 members, followed by the West Indies (12) and England (11). Five South Africans have scored a century in both innings of a Test match, Jacques Kallis pulling it off twice, with the other four members being Hashim Amla, Gary Kirsten, Bruce Mitchell and Alan Melville.
The happiest hunting ground for two-tonners is the Adelaide Oval in Australia, which has played host to eight of these rare feats, followed by Karachi and Kolkata (five apiece) and Brisbane (four). Chittagong, Colombo (SSC), Dhaka, Durban, Harare, Lord’s and The Oval have each played host to three occasions of a century being scored in both innings of a Test match.
Photo: Munir us Zaman/AFP/Getty Images
