McGrath set to join a select band

Nagpur Test will be a special occasion for Glenn McGrath as he will become the 30th player and eighth Australian to complete the century of Test match appearances.

Nagpur Test: Scorecard

The list of 100-Test members include seven Australians, seven Englishmen, seven West Indians, four Indians, three Pakistanis and one South African.

England's Michael Colin Cowdrey was the first player to complete his century of Test match appearances when he played at Birmingham at Australia in 1968. Cowdrey also made his appearance memorable by scoring a century and reaching 7000 runs in Test cricket.

Pakistan's Javed Miandad, West Indies' Gordon Greenidge and England's Alec Stewart are the other three batsmen to have scored a century in the 100th Test.

Interestingly McGrath will be only the sixth bowler (not considering Carl Hooper as a specialist bowler) joining the ranks of West Indian Courtney Walsh (132), India's Kapil Dev (131), fellow Australian Shane Warne (114), Pakistan's Wasim Akram (104) and England's Ian Botham (102). Apart from Warne, none of the bowlers managed to get a five-for in their 100th Test.

McGrath's tally of 446 wickets is also the highest for a bowler at the start of the 100th Test. Warne was the previous record holder with 436 wickets, followed by Akram (408), Botham (380), Walsh (362) and Kapil (347).

India's Sachin Tendulkar, at 29 years 134 days, was the youngest to appear in his 100th Test, whereas England's Geoff Boycott at 40 years 254 days was the oldest.

McGrath in Test cricket

Opponent	Tests	Balls	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Ave.	Best	5WI	10M	SR	ER
England	22	5221	245	2344	117	20.03	8/38	7	-	44.62	44.90
India	9	2144	128	781	43	18.16	5/48	2	1	49.86	36.43
New Zealand	9	2266	114	977	30	32.57	5/32	1	-	75.53	43.12
Pakistan	14	3193	139	1476	62	23.81	5/61	2	-	51.50	46.23
South Africa	14	3284	174	1233	49	25.16	6/86	2	-	67.02	37.55
Sri Lanka	8	1828	84	823	37	22.24	5/37	2	-	49.41	45.02
West Indies	20	4701	248	1847	97	19.04	6/17	8	2	48.46	39.29
Zimbabwe	1	324	19	90	6	15.00	3/44	-	-	54.00	27.78
Bangladesh	2	331	17	124	5	24.80	3/20	-	-	66.20	37.46
TOTAL	99	23292	1168	9695	446	21.74	8/38	24	3	52.22	41.62

McGrath in One-Day Internationals

Mts	Balls	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Ave.	Best	4W	5W	SR	ER
193	10127	223	6553	289	22.67	7/15	8	6	35.04	64.70

Major Highlights of McGrath's career :

·        Made his Test debut at Perth v New Zealand in 1993-94 & his ODI debut v South Africa at Melbourne also in 1993-94 - recorded a first-ball duck both on Test & ODI debuts

·        Has dismissed 82 batsmen on duck – most by any bowler in Test cricket

·        Has dismissed 133 left-handed batsmen – most in Test history

·        Has got 120 batsmen caught behind – most dismissals for any bowler in this fashion.

·        His tally include 66.59% of top order (1-6) batsmen- best among the bowlers with 400 wickets.

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·        Has dismissed Mike Atherton 19 times in 17 Tests – a record for any bowler of dismissing a particular batsman most number of times. Also dismissed Brian Lara 13 times in 20 Tests. His other bunnies are Jimmy Adams (12) and Sherwin Campbell (11). Among Indians his favourite victims have been Tendulkar & Laxman (5 times apiece).

·        Dismissed Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya off the first balls of Galle Test in 1999 to become only the fourth Australian to dismiss a batsman off the first ball of the match after Arthur Conningham, Ernie McCormick and Graham McKenzie.

·        Took atleast one wicket in 57 consecutive Tests from Perth 1994-95 (v England) to Adelaide 2000-01 (v West Indies) – an Australian record

·        Has conceded only seven century opening partnerships.

·        Has scored 457 runs and taken 446 wickets in 99 Tests! At one stage his tally of wickets was more than his run-aggregate. However in ODIs his wicket-aggregate (289) is thrice of his run-aggregate (94).

·        Has taken 315 wickets in 64 'won' Tests for Australia – only Warne (67) has made more appearances as a bowler and taken more wickets in 'won' matches.