Karun Nair sent records tumbling on day four of the fifth Test with England, as he powered India towards their highest total in the five-day game by becoming only the second batsman from the country to score 300 in the longest format.
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Nair, playing in just his third Test, hit 32 fours and four sixes en route to an unbeaten 303, with India setting a new Test best of 759-7 - smashing their previous top score of 726 - in response to England's first-inninSmith hints Mitch Marsh could return for Boxing Day Testgs 477.
His effort was the third highest by a player recording his maiden Test century and, with the help of Opta, we look at some of the facts and figures surrounding the top scores made by cricketers reaching three figures for the first time.
- Garfield Sobers holds the record for the highest maiden Test century score, the West Indies star hitting an unbeaten 365 against Pakistan in Kingston on February 26, 1958.
- Australia's Bob Simpson is the other player above Nair on that list, he mesmerised Old Trafford with a 311 versus England on 23 July, 1964. It was a Test score he never bettered, though it did not contribute to a win - with the match ending in a draw.
- Brian Lara is among the illustrious names now below Nair on the list. The West Indies legend's first three-figure effort came in Sydney on January 2, 1993 in just his fifth Test appearance, he scored 277 in a draw with Australia at the SCG.
- While England were on the receiving end this time around, an Englishman owns the fourth-highest score by a player hitting a maiden century. Reginald Erskine Foster marked his Test bow in Sydney with a 287 against Australia on December 11, 1903.
- Vinod Kambli is the next best performing Indian on the list, the middle-order batsman's first Test ton came when he scored 224 versus England on February 19, 1993. He bettered that effort with a 227 against Zimbabwe less than a month later.
2 - Karun Nair has become only the 2nd man ever (V Sehwag, 2004 & 2008) to post 300+ in a Test innings for India. Huge.
— OptaJim (@OptaJim) December 19, 2016
- The best performance by a player scoring his first Test century against India came on New Year's Eve 1958, Rohan Kanhai ringing in 1959 in style with a 256 in Kolkata to help the Windies to an innings victory.
- Prior to Nair's heroics, the most recent top score by a player recording his maiden Test ton was on April 16, 2006, when Jason Gillespie waited until his final appearance in the longest format to hit 201 in an Australia win over Bangladesh in Chittagong.
- The only other player to score over 200 when making his first Test century in Chennai is Australia's Dean Jones, whose 210 at the same venue on September 18, 1986 served as one of the many highlights in a dramatic tie with India.