SCORING a century in any grade of cricket is a good performance but to score a century in Test cricket is indeed a great honour for any batsman. Over two thousand centuries have been scored by many batsmen but there are few who have the application and determination to go on scoring even after completing their hundred and to reach the magical figure of 200. It's really a commendable effort to achieve this landmark in Test cricket. There are many great batsmen, who despite enormous talent and skill, have failed to reach 200 in Test cricket. Among the greats are Grace, Ranjitsinhji, Fry, Hazare Sutcliffe, Woolley, Hassett, Bardsely, Leyland, Macartney, Hill, O'Neill, Cowdrey, Ian Chappell, Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan, Richardson, Saeed Anwar and many others. In about 125 years of Test cricket, there have been a total of 207 instances of batsman crossing his second hundred landmark during the same innings. The name of Donald George Bradman, to be heading this table, with as many as twelve scores of 200 or more under his belt, makes it look as if it was the easiest of pastimes. He was the only player in history to have notched up two triple hundreds; in fact he would have had a third, had it not been for the very unfortunate run out of his last partner; he finished unbeaten with 299 runs to his credit in that particular innings. Wally Hammond is another player who has provided this excellence, and once again showed every follower of the game that there is little to separate him from the legendary Don, with as many as seven scores of over 200 against his name, he too has joined the ranks of the great players who ever blessed this game. Pakistan's Javed Miandad, very suprisingly is the next one on the list, with six double centuries featuring in his crown. Infact he is the only player in Test history to have notched up a multiple hundred against five different countries. And with three scores of 250, he is the only batsman in history, apart from 'The Don', to be holding such a distinction. Two of these knocks have been on away grounds. Five batsmen-Greg Chappell (Australia), Len Hutton (England), Gordon Greenidge (West Indies), Sunil Gavaskar (India) and Zaheer Abbas (Pakistan)- have four double -centuries each to their credit while Australia's Bob Simpson, West Indies' Viv Richards and Sri Lanka's Marvan Atapattu have made three double hundreds each. No less than 29 batsmen have scored two double-hundreds each in Test cricket.

R.E. Foster of England, L.G. Rowe of West Indies, D.S.B.P. Kuruppu of Sri Lanka and Matthew Sinclair of New Zealand are the only three players in the 125 years old history who have scored a double hundred on their Test debut. Foster scored a scintillating 287 against Australia at Sydney in 1903-04 and is the highest individual innings on a Test debut. L.G. Rowe hit a superb 214 against New Zealand at Kingston in 1973-74. In the second innings of the same Test he scored a marvellous 100 not out thus providing the only feat of such a great distinction on a Test debut. Sri Lanka's D.S.B.P. Kuruppu made 201 not out against New Zealand at Colombo in the 1986-87 season. New Zealand's Matthew Sinclair scored 214* against West Indies at Wellington in 1999-2000.

Zaheer Abbas and D. Lloyd scored a double century in their second Test, C.C. Hunte, Javed Miandad, Taslim Arif and D.M. Jones in their third Test, G.A. Headley, S.G. Barnes and S.M. Gavaskar each performed this feat in their fourth Test, M.P. Donnelly did so in his fifth Test while those who reached the landmark in their sixth Test are C.A. Roach, L. Hutton, D.G. Bradman, AD. Nourse, F.M.M. Worrell and M.A. Taylor.

Yousuf Youhana's double hundred was actually the 27th multiple-hundred recorded by a Pakistani batsman. In all, 231 centuries have been scored by Pakistanis in 275 Test matches which include 26 double and a triple century. The accompanying table provides a complete list of the multiple-hundred heroes for Pakistan. A cursory glance at the table reveals many interesting facts. Javed Miandad, as expected, leads the pack with six double-hundreds to his credit. His all -round excellence with the bat is further established as Javed has notched up 200-plus scores against five different countries. Only the West Indians and Zimbabweans among the sides Javed has faced in Test, have been able to contain him to less than 200.

In fact, there has been only one multiple-hundred recorded by a Pakistani against the mighty West Indians. And Hanif Mohammad's marathons 970-minute knock of 337 runs is the highest individual innings by a Pakistani against any country. Pakistan was following-on 473 run behind when Hanif started his momentous rearguard action. He featured in a century wicket partnerships for each of the first four wickets and helped Pakistan earn a respectable draw as they notched up a total of 657 for eight declared.

Zaheer Abbas, the bespectacled maestro, follows Javed Miandad in the second spot with four double-tons in his bag. Zaheer smashed his first two on successive trips to England in 1971 and 1974. His remaining two double centuries were scored against the Indians at home.

Hanif's son Shoaib Mohammad, the plucky outlaw Qasim Umar and Hanif himself twice had the distinction of banging a Test double century. Imtiaz Ahmed and Taslim Arif are the only wicketkeepers in Test history, apart from Sri Lanka's Brendon Kuruppu, to record a double century in a Test match. Taslim Arif, in the second Test of the three-Test rubber against Greg Chappell's 1979-80 Australians, remained on the field for the entire duration of the match.

Of the double centuries, 16 have been recorded in Pakistan, five on English soil, three in New Zealand, two in Bangladesh and one in the West Indies. At home, Lahore heads the grounds list with five multiple hundreds followed by four at Faisalabad, three in Karachi and two in Hyderabad. One each at Rawalpindi and Sheikhupura.

Incidentally, both the double centuries in Hyderabad were scored in the same Test match, when Miandad and Mudassar established a 451-run association for the third wicket. Their record was only broken a couple of seasons back by the Kiwi couple of Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones. No double century has yet been scored by a Pakistani batsman on Australian, Indian or Sri Lankan soil.

The 27 double-hundreds have been scored in 23 Test matches for Pakistan. Out of these Pakistan emerged victorious on eight occasions whereas the remaining 16 contests were drawn. Three of the victories were recorded abroad and five at home. The two players who got their double centuries in an overseas win were Hanif's younger brother Mushtaq Mohammad and Mohsin Khan.

The 1972-73 Dunedin Test will be remembered for Mushtaq Mohammad's exquisite all-round performance. Pakistan batted first and amassed 507 for the loss of only six wickets, thanks mainly to a record 350-run fourth-wicket stand between Mushtaq and Asif Iqbal who scored 175. Mushtaq, then in tandem with fellow leggie Intikhab, routed the Kiwis for 156 and 185 in their two outings. India's superb figures of 11-130 were very well supported by Mushtaq's 7-64.

Almost ten years later, Mohsin Khan hit an even 200 at cricket's headquarters at Lord's to set up a memorable Pakistan victory over England. Mohsin's heroics with the bat were followed by an amazing 6-32 spell from his opening colleague Mudassar Nazar that drove the final nail in England's coffin and enabled Pakistan to win a Test after 28 years.

Apart from Mohsin's magnificent effort, all other Pakistani double centuries on English soil have come in drawn Test matches. In 1971, when Zaheer scored his 274, England were forced to follow-on and were on the verge of defeat but were saved by a five-hour-long rain interruption on the final day.

The Oval Test in 1974 was played on a bowlers' graveyard and Zaheer exhibited his genuine liking for both the surface and the English attack by hammering their bowling to the tune of 240 runs. England, replying to Pakistan's 600 runs challenge, got as far as 545 on the fifth day as the match petered out as a tame draw. Pakistan was one-up in the rubber when they entered the fifth Test at the Oval. Javed Miandad batted 617 minutes for his 260 and put Pakistan in an impregnable position with their record Test score of 708 runs. He hit a six and 28 fours in his innings which was also Javed's first three-figure knock against England. Some shabby catching on the last day, coupled with inconsistent umpiring by David Constant, enabled England to save the Test match.

AUSTRALIA (4)

GS Chappell	235	v Pak	Faisalabad	1979-80
GS Chappell	201	v Pak	Brisbane	1981-82
GN Yallop	268	v Pak	Melbourne	1983-84
MA Taylor	334*	v Pak	Peshawar	1998-99

ENGLAND (2)

DCS Compton	278	v Pak	Nottingham	1954
ER Dexter	205	v Pak	Karachi	1961-62

WEST INDIES (3)

C C Hunte	260	v Pak	Kingston	1957-58
R B Kanhai	217	v Pak	Lahore	1958-59
G St A Sobers	365*	v Pak	Kingston	1957-58

NEW ZEALND (1)

M..S. Sinclair

204*

v Pak

Wellington

2000-01

INDIA (2)

A D Gaekwad	201	v Pak	Jullundur	1983-84
S V Manjrekar	218	v Pak	Lahore	1989-90

SRI LANKA (1)

MS Atapattu

207*

v Pak

Kandy

2000-01

ZIMBABWE (1)

G W Flower

201*

v Pak

Harare

1994-95

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