Sehwag rewrite record books at historic Brabourne (Statistical highlights)

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MUMBAI - Mumbai’s historic Brabourne Stadium where Test cricket returned after a break of 36 long years Thursday saw Virender Sehwag tear apart the record books en route his sensational unbeaten 284 against Sri Lanka in the third cricket Test.

Sehwag bettered his own record in scoring the fastest 250 off 207 balls. He surpassed his 250 off 225 balls against South Africa during his triple century knock at Chennai in March 2008.

# It is the most runs in a day by an Indian player and the third highest by any batsman in a day’s play - the top two innings being 309 by Don Bradman for Australia against England at Leeds in 1930 and 295 by Wally Hammond for England against New Zealand at Auckland in 1932-33.

# Sehwag is the first Indian player to make six innings of 200 or more in Tests (including two innings of 300-plus), overtaking Rahul Dravid’s tally of five double hundreds.

# Sehwag’s innings is the second fastest double century, next only to the 153-ball double hundred by New Zealand’s Nathan Astle against England at Christchurch in 2001-02.

# Sehwag became the only Indian batsman to make two double hundreds against Sri Lanka. Overall, he is the second batsman to register two double hundreds against Sri Lanka - West Indian Brian Lara was the first to do so.

# His feat of four innings of 250-plus is exceeded only by Sir Donald Bradman (5).

# Sehwag’s innings is the highest at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai. The first two batsmen to register double hundreds at this venue are - Vinoo Mankad 223 against New Zealand in 1955-56, and Dilip Sardesai 200 not out against New Zealand in 1964-65.

# Sehwag’s innings had seven sixes and 40 fours, taking his sixes’ tally to 75. He is now the seventh player in the history of Test cricket to hit 75 sixes or more, joining Australa’s Adam Gilchrist (100), West Indian Brian Lara (88), New Zealand’s Chris Cairns (87), West Indian Vivian Richards (84), England’s Andrew Flintoff (82) and Australia’s Matthew Hayden (82).

# Sehwag is the only Indian batsman to make 200 runs in a day three times. No other Indian has recorded the feat even once.

# India’s total of 443 is their highest in a day’s play, eclipsing the 417 for the loss of two wickets on the first day of the Kanpur Test in the second Test of the series.

# Sehwag has posted his 17th century in Tests - his third against Sri Lanka.

# Sehwag has posted twelve innings of 150 or more in Tests.

# Murali Vijay (87) posted his maiden fifty in Tests.

# The 221-run partnership between Vijay and Sehwag is India’s second best for the first wicket against Sri Lanka - the highest being the 233 by Gautam Gambhir and Sehwag in the Kanpur Test last week.

# The stand is the first double century partnership for any wicket for India at Brabourne Stadium.

# Sehwag and Dravid were involved in a stand of 222 (unbroken) for the second wicket, which is India’s second highest for this wicket-position against Sri Lanka - the highest being the 232 between S.Ramesh and Dravid at Colombo SSC in 1998-99.

# With two double-century stands in a row - for the first and second wickets - Sehwag now shares ten partnerships of 200-plus. His tally is bettered only by Sachin Tendulkar (14) and Rahul Dravid (13).

# Angelo Matthews became the first Sri Lankan batsman to be dismssed on 99 in a Test match against India.

# Dravid became the first player to share 80 stands of 100 runs and more.

# Dravid’s ninth half-century against Sri Lanka is his 58th in Tests.

# Sehwag became the ninth Indian to register 6,000 runs or more in Tests, and his excellent feat of reaching 6,000 runs (6239) in 123 innings is the third fastest by an Indian, next only to Sunil Gavaskar (117) and Sachin Tendulkar (120). Rahul Dravid had taken 125 innings, followed by Mohammad Azharuddin (143), Gundappa Viswanath (151), Dilip Vengsarkar (155), VVS Laxman (158) and Sourav Ganguly (159).