Stats: Players with most Test centuries in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings
Every cricket player’s dream is to represent his country at Test level. After this achievement, every player’s dream is to make a century for his country in the longest format of the game and first Test century is always special.
Every Test century gives the player a newfound confidence and in Tests, he has the opportunity to make a century twice in a single match. While you might know who has the most centuries in Tests (no prizes for correctly guessing that it is Sachin Tendulkar), you might not know who has scored the most in each innings of a Test.
While you might assume that it is obvious that Sachin Tendulkar is the leader in all four innings, you might be surprised to find out that that is not the case. In fact, he only leads the charts in one of the four innings.
Finding it hard to believe? Here, we have presented tables for all four innings with top five players with most centuries in that particular Test innings.
Here is a table that includes players with most Test centuries in 1st innings.
| Player name | Country | No.of Test centuries in 1st innings | No.of innings played in 1st innings | Runs | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ricky Ponting | Australia | 21 | 92 | 5403 | 61.39 |
| Jacques Kallis | South Africa | 20 | 80 | 4317 | 56.80 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | India | 20 | 91 | 5608 | 65.97 |
| Steve Waugh | Australia | 17 | 94 | 4855 | 62.24 |
| Rahul Dravid | India | 15 | 75 | 4121 | 57.23 |
The only list that Sachin tops is that of the most centuries in second innings. Here is the list of the top five players with most centuries in 2nd innings.
| Player name | Country | No.of Test centuries in 2nd innings | No.of innings played in 2nd innings | Runs | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sachin Tendulkar | India | 18 | 106 | 5692 | 55.26 |
| Rahul Dravid | India | 15 | 88 | 4984 | 61.53 |
| Mahela Jayawardena | Sri Lanka | 15 | 74 | 4833 | 67.12 |
| Jacques Kallis | South Africa | 14 | 85 | 4202 | 53.18 |
| Ricky Ponting | Australia | 14 | 76 | 3969 | 52.92 |
Kumar Sangakkara, who is fourth on the list of most Test centuries, tops the list of batsmen with most tons in the 3rd innings.
| Player name | Country | No.of Test centuries in 3rd innings | No.of innings played in 3rd innings | Runs | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kumar Sangakkara | Sri Lanka | 12 | 65 | 3406 | 56.76 |
| Alastair Cook | England | 11 | 53 | 2586 | 52.77 |
| Matthew Hayden | Australia | 10 | 42 | 2185 | 53.29 |
| Jacques Kallis | South Africa | 10 | 67 | 3394 | 65.26 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | India | 10 | 72 | 2996 | 46.81 |
It is a fourth different batsman who tops the list for most centuries in each innings. In the fourth innings, it is Pakistan's leading run-scorer in Tests, Younis Khan.
| Player name | Country | No.of Test centuries in 4th innings | No.of innings played in 4th innings | Runs | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Younis Khan | Pakistan | 5 | 33 | 1333 | 60.59 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | India | 4 | 33 | 1398 | 58.25 |
| Ramnaresh Sarwan | West Indies | 4 | 36 | 1241 | 37.60 |
| Graeme Smith | South Africa | 4 | 40 | 1611 | 53.70 |
| Ricky Ponting | Australia | 4 | 43 | 1462 | 50.41 |
As far as combined 1st and 2nd innings centuries are concerned Sachin Tendulkar has scored more centuries (38) than Ricky Ponting (35), Jacques Kallis (34), Rahul Dravid (30) and Steve Waugh (30).
Sachin also heads the table of most 2nd and 3rd innings centuries with 28. Kumar Sangakkara (25), Jacques Kallis (24), Alastair Cook (20), Rahul Dravid (20) and Brian Lara (20) round off the top five.
When we look at 3rd and 4th innings ,then Kumar Sangakkara is the player who has scored more centuries (14) than any other batsmen.
Although Sachin has only scored three test tons in the fourth innings, nobody has scored more than his 48, in the first three innings of a Test.