Sangakkara becomes 11th player to reach 10,000 Test runs

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Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka has become the eleventh batsman in the history of cricket to have achieved 10,000 Test runs.

[caption id="attachment_186" align="alignright" width="234"] Sangakkara reached 10,000-run mark in least number of innings (Photo: Getty Images)[/caption]

Though the first day of the ongoing traditional ‘Boxing Day Test’ in Melbourne has not proved any better for Sri Lanka because their inning ended only on 156 runs, Sangakkara was not only the top-scorer from the tourists with 58 runs, he also achieved the milestone.

He made his 10 thousandth Test run in the last over before the lunch break, and thus after touching the mark in his 195th inning, he became one of the three batsmen, along with Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, to have achieved 10,000-mark in the least number of innings.

Lara in Manchester against England in August 2004 and Tendulkar in Kolkata Test against Pakistan in 2005 made their 10 thousandth run. Interestingly, both the batsmen, like Sangakkara, were playing their 195th inning.

Before Sangakkara, only one Sri Lankan batsman, the present captain Mahela Jayawardene, crossed the mark. He achieved the milestone today (December 26) in 2011 against South Africa in the historic Durban Test, in which Sri Lankans for the first time beat Proteas in Tests.

The first player to score 10,000 runs in the history of the game was Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar, who, in March 1987, achieved the milestone against Pakistan in Ahmedabad Test.

Allan Border was the second player to reach his 10,000 Test runs in 1993, which was the last time in the 20th century any batsman reached the mark. But with the turn of the 21st century, many batsmen added to the list until now.

Below is the list of eleven players who have scored 10,000 runs in Tests. The list is arranged in ascending order according to the number of innings:

Name	Country	vs	Venue	Date	Matches	Innings	Career runs
Brian Lara		England	Manchester	August 12, 2004	111	195	11953
Kumar Sangakkara		Australia	Melbourne	December 26, 2012	115	195	10018
Sachin Tendulkar		Pakistan	Kolkata	March 16, 2005	122	195	15645
Ricky Ponting		West Indies	North Sound	May 30, 2008	118	196	13378
Rahul Dravid		South Africa	Chennai	March 26, 2008	120	206	13288
Mahela Jayawardene		South Africa	Durban	December 26, 2011	127	210	10674
Sunil Gavaskar		Pakistan	Ahmedabad	March 4, 1987	124	212	10122
Jacques Kallis		Australia	Johannesburg	February 26, 2009	129	217	12980
Allan Border		West Indies	Sidney	January 2, 1993	136	235	11174
Shivnarine Chanderpaul		Australia	Roseau	April 23, 2012	140	239	10696
Steve Waugh		England	Sidney	January 2, 2003	156	244	10927