Younis Khan, playing the captain’s knock of a lifetime, scored a triple century to help Pakistan avoid a follow-on against Sri Lanka and overhaul the enormous Lankan total of 644/7. While the pitch is a graveyard for bowlers, fast and spin, that should not detract from the enormous achievement of batting for over 2 days against a good opponent. There have been flat tracks before, there will be flat tracks in the future, but very few people have managed to get a three in the hundreds column. In over 1900 Tests, there have only been 23 triple centuries.

Here are the century makers (the bolded scores were the record at the time)

1. Andy Sandham, 325, England v WI, Kingston, 1930
2. Don Bradman:
   1. 334, Australia v England, Leeds, 1930
   2. 304, Australia v England, Leeds, 1934
3. Wally Hammond, 336*, England v NZ, 1933
4. Len Hutton, 364, England v Australia, The Oval, 1938
5. Hanif Mohammad, 337, Pakistan v WI, Bridgetown, 1958
6. Garfield Sobers, 365*, WI v Pakistan, Kingston, 1958
7. Bob Simpson, 311, Australia v England, Manchester, 1964
8. John Edrich, 310*, England v NZ, Leeds, 1965
9. Bob Cowper, 307, Australia v England, Melbourne, 1966
10. Lawrence Rowe, 302, WI v England, Bridgetown, 1974
11. Graham Gooch, 333, England v India, Lords, 1990
12. Brian Lara
    1. 375, WI v England, St. John’s, 1994
    2. 400*, WI v England, St. John’s, 2004
13. Sanath Jayasuriya, 340, Sri Lanka v India, 1997
14. Mark Taylor, 334*, Australia v Pakistan, Peshawar, 1998
15. Inzamam-ul-Haq, 329, Pakistan v NZ, Lahore, 2002
16. Matthew Hayden, 380, Australia v Zimbabwe, Perth, 2003
17. Virender Sehwag
    1. 309, India v Pakistan, Multan, 2004
    2. 319, India v South Africa, Chennai, 2008
18. Chris Gayle, 317, WI v South Africa, St. John’s, 2005
19. Mahela Jayawardene, 374, Sri Lanka v South Africa, Colombo, 374
20. Younis Khan, 313, Pakistan v Sri Lanka, Karachi, 2009

Only three batsmen have hit two triple centuries: Don Bradman, Brian Lara and Virender Sehwag. Other than Lara, no one with over 10,000 runs has hit a triple century. At the other end of the spectrum, Andy Sandham scored just 875 runs in his entire career.

England leads the way with 5 triple century-makers, followed by Australia and West Indies with four each, Pakistan with three, Sri Lanka with two and India with Sehwag. New Zealand is unlucky to miss out with Crowe getting out on 299. South Africa are also yet to open their account.

St. John’s and Leeds have the most triple centuries (3 each). England has conceded the most triple centuries (7) while Australia, perhaps not surprisingly, only just one. Except for Hanif Mohammad’s rearguard match-saving effort against the West Indies, all the triple centuries were made in the first innings of the respective teams.

Graham Gooch is the only person to hit both a triple century and a ton in the same match. Virender Sehwag hit the fastest 300 off just 278 balls. He may still do it again. Wonder who the next victim will be.