Langer and Hayden set a World Record by Rajesh Kumar

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Scorecard:	West Indies v Australia
Player:	JL Langer, ML Hayden

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With their best-ever partnership of 242 for the first wicket on May 11, the opening pair of Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer produced Australia's best stand for any wicket against West Indies at St.John's, surpassing the previous best of 186 for the fifth wicket between Dean Jones and Mark Waugh in 1990-91.

The opening pair of Hayden and Langer established a world record for posting a fifth partnership of 200 or more and their highest in Test Cricket. The pair went past the previous record of West Indian pair - Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, who had shared four partnerships of 200-plus.

The following table shows the double century stands by both the pairs:

Five double century stands by M.L.Hayden and J.L.Langer:

Partnership  Opponents        Venue            Season
242          West Indies      St.John's        2002-03
224          New Zealand      Brisbane         2001-02
223          New Zealand      Bellerive        2001-02
219          South Africa     Sydney           2001-02
202          South Africa     Melbourne        2001-02

Four double century stands by C.G.Greenidge and D.L.Haynes:

Partnership  Opponents        Venue            Season
298          England          St.John's        1989-90
296          India            St.John's        1982-83
250*         Australia        Georgetown       1983-84
225          New Zealand      Christchurch     1979-80

Just for the record, the left-handed pair of Hayden and Langer is the only one in the 126-year history of Test Cricket to have put on a double century stand for the first wicket. The next best by a left-handed pair for the first wicket in Test cricket is 198 between Bob Barber and Geoff Puller for England against Pakistan at Dhaka in 1961-62.

The Ten Opening Partnerships in Test Cricket with a minimum of 2300 runs in aggregate are:

 
Pair                        For Inngs. N.O.Runs  Ave. Highest 100  50
                                                      Stand
C.G.Greenidge/D.L.Haynes    WI   148   11  6482 47.31  298    16   26
M.J.Slater/M.A.Taylor       Aus   78    2  3887 51.14  260    10   16
W.M.Lawry/R.B.Simpson       Aus   62    3  3596 60.95  382     9   18
J.B.Hobbs/H.Sutcliffe       Eng   38    1  3249 87.81  283    15   10
C.P.S.Chauhan/SM Gavaskar   Ind   59    3  3010 53.75  213    10   10
L.Hutton/C.Washbrook        Eng   51    3  2880 60.00  359     8   13
M.S.Atapattu/S.T.Jayasuriya SL    79    5  2786 37.65  335     4   17
M.A.Atherton & G.A.Gooch    Eng   44    0  2501 56.84  225     7   12
M.L.Hayden/J.L.Langer       Aus   36    1  2494 71.26  242     9    7
H.H.Gibbs & G.Kirsten       S.A   52    0  2304 44.31  256     5   11

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Rajesh Kumar)