Gary Kirsten is a former international cricketer who represented South Africa between 1993 and 2004. A left-handed batsman who primarily played as an opener, Kirsten took part in 101 Test matches and 185 One Day Internationals (ODIs) for his country and scored centuries (100 or more runs in a single innings) on 21 and 13 occasions respectively.
Kirsten made both his Test and ODI debuts against Australia in December 1993. He made his first Test century in November 1995, when he scored 110 against England. A year later Kirsten made centuries in both innings of a Test when he scored 102 and 133 in the second Test of the 1996–97 series against India. He achieved his highest Test score in 1999, when he made 275 against England in Durban. In an attempt to prevent South Africa from losing the match, he batted for almost 14 hours, spread across the last three of the match's five days. The innings remains the second-longest by any batsman in Test cricket in terms of time span, behind an innings of over 16 hours recorded by Hanif Mohammad for Pakistan in 1958. His most prolific series was against England in 2003, when he made 462 runs at an average of 66.00 including two centuries. His accomplishments with the bat during the season led to him being named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year the following year. As of June 2015, Kirsten is joint fourth in the list of leading Test century-makers for South Africa with AB de Villiers, and his total of three double centuries for the team is exceeded only by the four recorded by Graeme Smith. He scored centuries against all nine other teams which held Test match status at the time, and was the first player to score a hundred against every other active Test-playing nation.
Kirsten's first ODI century came against Australia in January 1994 in the first match of the best-of-three final of the Tri-nation tournament. His highest score in ODI cricket came against the United Arab Emirates during the 1996 Cricket World Cup when he scored 188 not out. As of November 2016, this is the highest one-day figure recorded by a South African and the third-highest in the World Cup by any batsman. In ODIs he was most successful against India, accumulating four centuries. South Africa lost only one of the thirteen matches in which Kirsten scored a century. As of November 2016, he is thirtieth among all-time century makers, and sixth in the equivalent list for South Africa.
Key
+ Key Symbol Meaning * Remained not out Man of the match Pos. Position in the batting order Balls Balls faced Inn. The innings of the match Test The number of the Test match played in that series S/R. Strike rate during the innings H/A/N Venue was at home (South Africa), away or neutral. Date Match starting day Lost The match was lost by South Africa. Won The match was won by South Africa. Drawn The match was drawn.
Test cricket centuries +List of Test centuries scored by Gary KirstenNo.ScoreAgainstPos.Inn.TestVenueH/A/NDateResult 1 110 2 1 2/5 The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg Home Drawn 2 102 2 1 2/3 Eden Gardens, Kolkata Away 1 Won 3 133 2 3 2/3 Eden Gardens, Kolkata Away 2 Won 4 103 2 1 2/3 Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town Home Won 5 100* 1 1 3/3 Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad Away Won 6 108* 1 3 3/3 Adelaide Oval, Adelaide Away Drawn 7 210 1 1 3/5 Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Manchester Away Drawn 8 134 1 3 5/5 SuperSport Park, Centurion Home Won 9 128 1 1 1/3 Eden Park, Auckland Away Drawn 10 275 1 3 3/5 Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban Home Drawn 11 180 2 1 1/3 Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban Home Drawn 12 150 1 2 1/5 Bourda Cricket Ground, Georgetown Away Drawn 13 220 2 1 1/2 Harare Sports Club, Harare Away Won 14 153 2 3 3/3 Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Away Lost 15 150 3 1 1/2 Buffalo Park, East London Home Won 16 160 3 2 2/2 Senwes Park, Potchefstroom Home Won 17 108 3 2 2/5 Lord's Cricket Ground, London Away Won 18 130 3 1 4/5 Headingley, Leeds Away Won 19 118 4 3 2/2 Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad Away Drawn 20 137 5 2 2/4 Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban Home Won 21 137 5 1 1/3 Westpac Park, Hamilton Away Drawn
One Day International centuries
+ List of ODI centuries scored by Gary KirstenNo. Score Balls Against Pos. Inn. S/R Venue H/A/N Date Result 1 112* 137 2 1 81.75 Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne Away Won 2 116 126 2 2 92.06 SuperSport Park, Centurion Home Won 3 188* 159 2 1 118.23 Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi Neutral Won 4 106 116 1 1 91.37 Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah Neutral Won 5 115* 142 1 1 80.98 Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah Neutral Won 6 118* 127 2 2 92.91 Nairobi Gymkhana Club, Nairobi Neutral Won 7 105* 134 2 2 78.35 Nehru Stadium, Indore Away Won 8 103 113 1 1 91.15 Brisbane Cricket Ground, Brisbane Neutral Won 9 115 123 1 1 93.49 Nehru Stadium, Kochi Away Lost 10 101 107 2 2 94.39 De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley Home Won 11 133* 155 1 2 85.80 The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg Home Won 12 124 130 1 1 95.38 Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town Home Won 13 102* 118 2 2 86.44 Boland Park, Paarl Home Won
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