It took almost 20 years for Pakistan's Hanif Mohammad to score his triple hundred (337 against the West Indies at Bridgetown, Barbados in 1958) after Len Hutton's 364 in 1938. That was the longest gap between the two triple hundreds by two different batsmen.


Hanif Mohammad

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum followed Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara in the same month to make the gap the shortest ever. "The reason for batsmen not being able to score triple tons freely during our time was the fact that the wickets were not covered in those days. Thus, the bowlers were given great chances to dominate," said Hanif over the telephone from Karachi yesterday.