By IANS
Adelaide : With his 30th Test century here Saturday, Australian opener Matthew Hayden has overtaken South African Jacques Kallis and legendary Australian Donald Bradman who have scored 29 centuries each.
Hayden, who made 103 on the third day of the fourth Test against India, has now moved to sixth place in the century scorers’ list, behind Sachin Tendulkar (39), Sunil Gavaskar (34), Brian Lara (34), Ricky Ponting (33) and Steve Waugh (32).
The left-hander posted his third century in successive Tests in the present series. He made 124 in Melbourne and 123 at Sydney, but did not play in the Perth Test owing to an injury.
Hayden has also become the first Australian to aggregate 400 runs in the series. He has so far tallied 410 at an average of 82.00 in five innings.
With Saturday’s knock, Hayden has taken his career aggregate to 8,242, scored at an average of 53.51. He has also slammed 27 half-centuries in 94 Tests.
During the course of his 103-run knock, Hayden became the most successful batsman for Australia against India. He now has scored 1,654 runs at an average of 66.16, and has hit six centuries and six fifties, to eclipse Allan Border’s tally of 1,567 runs at an average of 52.23 in 20 Tests.
Hayden is now the third Australian, after Bradman (four centuries in five Tests in 1947-48) and David Boon (three tons in five Tests in 1991-92) to register three or more hundreds in a Test series against India.
Hayden has recorded three or more centuries in successive Tests three times. During the 2001-02 season he registered four centuries in successive Tests against South Africa, at Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Johannesburg.
The 36-year-old batsman repeated the feat of four hundreds in successive Tests between 2005 and 2005-06 with centuries against England at The Oval in 2005, against a World XI at Sydney, and against the West Indies at Brisbane and Hobart in 2005-06.