Kirsten plays second longest innings ever

South Africa's Gary Kirsten set a plethora of records during his match saving marathon innings of 275 in the Durban Test against England.

Kirsten now shares the record of playing highest individual innings for South Africa with Daryll Cullinan who made 275 not out against NewZealand at Auckland in 1998-99.

Kirsten's innings lasted for 878 minutes - longest ever played for South Africa. He easily beat Herschelle Gibbs' 659 minute 211 not out in the second Test against New Zealand at Christchurch in 1998-99, which in turn had just nosed ahead of Daryll Cullinan's 658 minute essay in the first Test of the same series at Auckland. It is also the second longest innings in a Test after Pakistan's Hanif Mohammed's marathon 970 minute 337 against WestIndies at Bridgetown in 1957-58. In fact Kirsten's innings is the third longest ever in all first class matches surpassed only by Rajiv Nayyar (who just recently broke Hanif Mohammed's long - standing record by batting for 1,015 minutes in a north zone Ranji Trophy league match) and Hanif Mohammed himself.

Kirsten now has a tally of 10 Test match hundreds to his namemost by a South African. He was earlier at level with 'Dudley' Nourse and Daryll Cullinan with nine hundreds. Kirsten has now scored 3792 runs in 56 Tests - most by a South African. He surpassed fellow team-mate and captain Hansie Cronje's tally of 3689 runs from 64 Tests.

Highest individual innings for each country :

For          Score   Batsman            Opponent        Venue         Season

England      364     Len Hutton         Australia       The Oval       1938

Australia 334* Mark Taylor Pakistan Peshawar 1998-99 334 Don Bradman England Leeds 1930

South Africa 275* Daryll Cullinan NewZealand Auckland 1998-99 275 Gary Kirsten England Durban 1999-00

WestIndies 375 Brian Lara England St.John's 1993-94

NewZealand 299 Martin Crowe SriLanka Wellington 1990-91

India 236* Sunil Gavaskar WestIndies Chennai 1983-84

Pakistan 337 Hanif Mohammed WestIndies Bridgetown 1957-58

SriLanka 340 Sanath Jayasuriya India Colombo RP 1996-97

Zimbabwe 266 Dave Houghton SriLanka Bulawayo 1994-95

Longest individual innings :

Mins   Runs  Batsman         Countries            Venue         Season

970   337   Hanif Mohammed     Pakistan     v WestIndies  Bridgetown    1957-58
878   275   Gary Kirsten       South Africa v England     Durban        1999-00
799   340   Sanath Jayasuriya  SriLanka     v India       Colombo RP 1996-97
797   364   Len Hutton        England      v Australia   The Oval 1938
777   201 * Brendon Kuruppu    SriLanka     v NewZealand  Colombo CCC 1986-87
766   375   Brian Lara        WestIndies   v England   St.John's 1993-94
762   311   Bob Simpson        Australia    v England   Manchester 1964
753   225   Roshan Mahanama    SriLanka     v India   Colombo RP 1996-97
727   307   Bob Cowper        Australia    v England   Melbourne 1965-66
720   163   Shoaib Mohammed    Pakistan     v NewZealand  Wellington 1988-89
720   334*  Mark Taylor        Australia    v Pakistan   Peshawar 1998-99