5 Last Century Opening Partnerships outside Asia for India

A job well begun is a job half done. A major reason behind India's struggles outside Asia in cricket for the past decade or so have been the failure of the openers to get the team off to a good start. A solid opening partnership not only wears out the bowlers but also takes care of the shine on the ball, thus reducing its ability to swing. This, in turn, ends up making life easier for the middle order and paving ways for big totals.

However, in the last 66 Test Match innings outside Asia, India have lost a wicket before a run has been scored on 7 occasions, had a partnership of 50 or more 6 times, and never had a partnership of 100 or more!

So, when was the last time they had an opening partnership of 100 or more outside Asia? Here are the latest 5 (most recent last) such instances:

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#5 Jaffer-Sehwag: 159 v West Indies, 2006

File Photo: Virender Sehwag

With Wasim Jaffer watching from the best seat in the house, Viru laid into the Windies attack. The 100 of the partnership came up in the 17th over, with Sehwag scoring 82 of the runs and Jaffer 12. By the time the lunch break came around, Sehwag was on 99, one short of becoming only the fifth batsman to score a Test Century before Lunch on Day 1; he even almost ran himself out of the last ball of the session in an attempt to get there!

When Jaffer finally nicked one to the slip cordon in the 30th over, he had 43, Sehwag 109, and India 159. Centuries from Dravid and Kaif took India to 588/8, but a defiant Brian Lara century in the second innings saw the West Indies to safety on the last day of the Test.

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#4 Jaffer-Sehwag 109 v West Indies, 2006

File Photo: Wasim Jaffer and Virender Sehwag

In the very next Test, West Indies repaid India in kind, winning the toss, opting to bat first, and piling on a score in excess of 580. A Laxman hundred in the first innings kept India afloat, barely. Set 392 to win, but more importantly, almost the whole of day 5 to survive, Jaffer and Sehwag gave a strong start to push India's case for a draw.

Sehwag, after starting slowly, by his standards, soon got into his usual brisk mood - whipping, cutting, and slashing his way to the lunch break. While Sehwag was his usual self, so was Jaffer, complementing the Nawab of Najafgarh, with a slow, but steady innings of his own, keeping the home bowlers at bay. Sehwag fell the first ball after lunch, leg before wicket to Corey Collymore, but by then he had more than put India on the path to a draw.

#3 Jaffer-Karthik 153 v South Africa, 2007

Dinesh Karthik tasted immediate success in a new role

Having won the first Test, and lost the second, India headed into the third and the deciding Test without MS Dhoni. In his stead, they brought in Dinesh Karthik, who hadn't played a Test Match in 15 months, and asked him to open in place of a struggling Sehwag, on the first morning of the Test. Each of Karthik's previous 13 Test innings had come at number 7.

The two, especially young DK, started off slowly, building a solid foundation. His first boundary, a straight drive off Kallis, came in the 16th over but did nothing to change his momentum, as he carried on and on. India went to lunch without the loss of a wicket, and then went to tea without a loss of a wicket!

DK's marathon four-hour stay only came to an end off the first ball post-tea, courtesy a dubious decision by the umpire. He had 63 from 170 by then, and India had 153. Jaffer went on to compile a memorable hundred, but a second innings collapse saw India concede the Test and the Series, despite having secured a handy first innings lead.

#2 Jaffer-Karthik 147 v England, 2007

Karthik and Jaffer were at it again, this time in England

Rain and MS Dhoni helped India escape to a draw in the first Test at Lord's. By the time the second Test at Trentbridge came along, Dinesh Karthik, now in the team as a batsman, rather than MS Dhoni's injury replacement, had scored 365 runs in 6 outings as a Test opener with 3 Fifties and 1 Century. At Nottingham, after Zaheer had blown England away, he added 77 more to his tally.

The duo of Jaffer and Karthik erased close to three-fourths of England's first innings tally of 198 themselves as they put the attack, comprising of Anderson, Sidebottom, Tremlett, Collingwood, and Panesar, to the sword. The pair fell in quick succession, only for Tendulkar to pick up from where they left and take India to a famous Test win, that paved the way for a historic series win in England.

Dinesh Karthik scored a fluent 91 in the drawn third Test at the Oval, his highest as an opener. However, 39 runs and 4 innings in, the home series against Pakistan saw an end to his short but fruitful stint as an opener.

#1 Gambhir-Sehwag 137 vs South Africa, 2010

Gambhir and Sehwag put on the last Opening Century Partnership outside Asia for India

India's series got off to the worst possible start with Morkel and Steyn skittling them out for 136. As if that wasn't enough, they were then buried under a mountain of runs with Jacques Kallis slamming his first Test Double Century and AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla also helping themselves to centuries. By the time Graeme Smith decided they had had enough, South Africa had 620/4 on the board and were 484 runs ahead in the first innings itself.

With the game all but gone, Sehwag and Gambhir came out fighting and put on a dazzling display of strokes. The duo put on 137 for the first wicket, one run more than what the entire Indian team managed in the first innings. However, the fifties from Sehwag, Gambhir, and Dhoni, and a masterclass of a century from Sachin Tendulkar, his 50th in Test Cricket, couldn't help avoid an innings defeat as they fell 25 runs short of South Africa's first innings lead.

7 years and 8 months on, India is yet to see an opening partnership of 100 or more outside of Asia.