Virender Sehwag’s sublime knock of 131 helped India post a massive score of 417 on the first day of the second Test.

By Rajesh Kumar

Virender Sehwag, during the course of his magnificent hundred - 131 off 122 balls, has recorded his second best innings at Green Park, Kanpur, next only to the 164 off 228 balls against South Africa at Kanpur in November 2004.

Sehwag's second hundred against Sri Lanka is his 16th in Tests. He has now registered eight hundreds each in India and overseas. Sehwag's tally of 15 centuries as an opener is bettered only by Sunil Gavaskar (33).

Click here for Sehwag's images

Sehwag's knock of 131 is his first hundred in nine Tests under Mahendra Singh Dhoni's captaincy. With his dismissal, he narrowly missed recording his 12th hundred of 150-plus in succession, but still holds a world record in his name. After making the first four hundreds in Tests - 105 on debut against South Africa at Bloemfontein in 2001-02, 106 against England at Nottingham in 2002, 147 against West Indies at Mumbai in 2002-03 and 130 against New Zealand at Mohali in 2003-04, Sehwag's next eleven innings of 100-plus have been 195, 309, 155, 164, 173, 201, 254, 180, 151, 319 and 201 not out.

Thanks to his explosive hundred, Sehwag has again reached a batting average of 50.00 - 5,955 (avg. 50.46) in 71 Tests.

Super Selector is all geared up for the India vs Sri Lanka series. Have you selected your test team in the new Super Selector? Hurry! Register now and win exciting prizes

Sehwag has taken his run-aggregate against Sri Lanka to 598 in seven Tests, at an average of 54.36. His strike rate of 94.92 against Sri Lanka is his best against any opponent.

Sehwag is the only batsman in Test annals to register a triple hundred each against two opponents - Pakistan and South Africa. He is one of the three batsmen to record two triple hundreds in Tests - the other two being Don Bradman (two against England) and Brian Lara (two against England).

With Rahul Dravid, Sehwag shares an Indian record for five double hundreds.

Want to know all about numbers on the field? Ask our own stats guru Rajesh Kumar. Send in your queries to fanspeak@espnstar.co.in