In the days of Bazball and super aggressive cricket even in the longest form of the game, it’s rare to see batsmen grinding it out for hours and days to score runs in Test cricket. Only a few of these batsmen are still around and we got to witness one such marathon knock by 26-year old Tagenarine Chanderpaul over the last couple of days in the ongoing 2023 West Indies tour of Zimbabwe.
Day 1 saw the touring team getting to 112/0 and by the end of Day 2 at Stumps, they had 221/0 with Chanderpaul just managing to get his maiden Test century, one hour before the close of play. Today on Day 3, West Indies lost wickets in both the first couple of sessions but the junior Chanderpaul decided to motor on, putting his name down in the history books with a maiden Test double century.
Tagenarine Chanderpaul – 7th slowest Test double hundred
From batting with his opening partner to seeing 6 wickets fall in no time, things were changing quick around Tagenarine, but he stood tall at one end, piling on the runs slowly. We will emphasise on the term slowly here because he’s also recorded the seventh slowest double century in the history of Test cricket, with this being the only entry on this list from the 21st Century.
None of the top 10 slowest Test double centuries prior to this had been scored after the year 2000/01 when Marvan Atapattu scored his unbeaten double hundred in 451 deliveries. Chanderpaul kept at his scoring rate on Day 3 of the Zimbabwe vs West Indies 1st Test, getting to the phenomenal milestone in 465 balls. Only six batsmen in the history of Test cricket took longer to score a Test double century.
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Sri Lanka’s Brendon Kuruppu is at the top of this list, getting to his double hundred in 548 balls. Zimbabwe’s very own David Houghton got there in 524 balls, while close behind him is a 522-ball double century from South Africa’s Gary Kirsten. The fourth on this list is Grant Flower from Zimbabwe again, getting there in 520 deliveries while India’s Navjot Singh Sidhu got a double in 488 balls in 1996/97.
Finally, West Indies’ Sherwin Campbell got there in 484 balls, and these are all the batsmen in Test cricket who have got to this landmark slower than Tagenarine. We’re not taking anything away from this achievement as it’s a high-quality knock, following in the footsteps of his father, Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Here are some of the reactions we found on Twitter:
Tagenarine Chanderpaul only needed five innings to surpass his father's highest Test score 😳 #ZIMvWI
— Farid Khan (@_FaridKhan) February 6, 2023
Shivnarine Chanderpaul reached his maiden Test double century with a four.
Tagenarine Chanderpaul reached his maiden Test double century with a six.
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) February 6, 2023
He became the 10th West Indian cricketer to convert a maiden Test century into a double century, and he got there in style too, with a six over the bowler’s head. With that, he passed his father’s best Test score as well, only needing 5 innings to go one step ahead of his father. Special, truly special innings by the southpaw, one he won’t forget anytime soon.
For similar updates from the 2023 West Indies tour of Zimbabwe, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com.
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