da betsson： South Africa’s fourth successive series win against West Indies was to an extent overshadowed by the run-fest in the final Test in Antigua
Bhavika Jhaveri04-May-2005South Africa’s fourth successive series win against West Indies was to an extent overshadowed by the run-fest in the final Test in Antigua in a match where several records were created. For the first time, eight centuries were scored in a Test – four from each side – which surpassed the previous record of seven, which had been achieved on three occasions: England v Australia at Trent Bridge in 1938, West Indies v Australia at Kingston in 1955, and South Africa v West Indies at Cape Town in 2003-04.West Indies’ 747 was their highest total against South Africa, while the match tally of 1462 runs for 17 wickets makes this Test the third-highest in terms of runs conceded per wicket.MatchVenue, YearRuns per wicketInd v NZDelhi, 1955109.30SL v IndColombo, 1997106.36WI v RSAAntigua, 200586.00WI v EngAntigua, 199481.93Pak v AustPeshawar, 199881.56Among venues which have hosted at least ten Tests, Antigua also tops the list for the highest number of centuries per match.VenueNo. of matchesCenturiesRatioSt.John’s20532.65Adelaide631432.27Galle11232.09SSC, Colombo25522.08Bridgetown42872.07The batsman who made the most of the flat track was Chris Gayle, who went on to make a career-best 317. He became the fourth West Indian to score a triple-century, and the first to do so against South Africa. The earlier highest against them was Don Bradman’s unbeaten 299 at Adelaide in 1931-32.PlayerRunsYearVenueGayle (WI)3172004-05St.Johns Bradman (Aust)299*1931-32 AdelaidePaynter (Eng)2431938-39KingsmeadJayawardene (SL)2372004ColomboSangakkara (SL)2322004ColomboThe 331-run partnership between Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan is the highest second-wicket stand against South Africa, surpassing the previous best of 280 between Bill Edrich and Paul Gibb for England in 1938-39 in Durban.For the bowlers, this was an entirely forgettable game. (Mark Boucher might disagree, though: he became only the ninth wicketkeeper to take a Test wicket.) In all, 19 bowlers were used in the match, 11 by South Africa and eight by West Indies. The only time when this number was exceeded in a Test was when England played South Africa at Cape Town in 1965, when 20 players bowled.