-records most test half centuries by a West Indian

Guyana and West Indies middle-order batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul is likely to have fond memories of Dunedin, New Zealand.

Sir Garfield Sobers

For it was there that the left-hander  racked up two of his latest milestones during the first test against the ‘Kiwis’ which ended in a draw yesterday.

Chanderpaul entered the match 31 runs shy of Sir Garfield Sobers’s aggregate of 8032 test runs and his innings of 76 took him past that to 8077 test runs and third on the West Indies list behind Brian Lara and Sir Vivian Richards.

Richards has played eight more test matches than Chanderpaul and has 463 runs more.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul

His overall aggregate is 8540 runs from 121 test matches and his average is 50.23 runs per innings as compared to Chanderpaul’s 49.25.

Chanderpaul also has the most test half centuries by a West Indian batsman.

He became the first West Indian batsman to register 50 half-centuries with his innings of 76.

The previous record of 48 was held by Lara.

Clive Lloyd scored 39 test half centuries while Ramnaresh Sarwan has scored 30.
Former Australian captain Allan Border has the most test half centuries, 63, while Rahul `The Wall’ Dravid has 53.

Brian Lara

Other batsmen who have recorded 50 or more half centuries include Sachin Tendulkar with 51 and Steve Waugh with 50.