# List of international cricket centuries by Gary Kirsten

Gary Kirsten is a former international cricketer who represented South Africa between 1993 and 2004. A left-handed batsman who primarily played as an opener, Kirsten took part in 101 Test matches and 185 One Day Internationals (ODIs) for his country and scored centuries (100 or more runs in a single innings) on 21 and 13 occasions respectively.
Kirsten made both his Test and ODI debuts against Australia in December 1993. He made his first Test century in November 1995, when he scored 110 against England. A year later Kirsten made centuries in both innings of a Test when he scored 102 and 133 in the second Test of the 1996–97 series against India. He achieved his highest Test score in 1999, when he made 275 against England in Durban. In an attempt to prevent South Africa from losing the match, he batted for almost 14 hours, spread across the last three of the match's five days. The innings remains the second-longest by any batsman in Test cricket in terms of time span, behind an innings of over 16 hours recorded by Hanif Mohammad for Pakistan in 1958. His most prolific series was against England in 2003, when he made 462 runs at an average of 66.00 including two centuries. His accomplishments with the bat during the season led to him being named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year the following year. As of June 2015, Kirsten is joint fourth in the list of leading Test century-makers for South Africa with AB de Villiers, and his total of three double centuries for the team is exceeded only by the four recorded by Graeme Smith. He scored centuries against all nine other teams which held Test match status at the time, and was the first player to score a hundred against every other active Test-playing nation.
Kirsten's first ODI century came against Australia in January 1994 in the first match of the best-of-three final of the Tri-nation tournament. His highest score in ODI cricket came against the United Arab Emirates during the 1996 Cricket World Cup when he scored 188 not out. As of November 2016, this is the highest one-day figure recorded by a South African and the third-highest in the World Cup by any batsman. In ODIs he was most successful against India, accumulating four centuries. South Africa lost only one of the thirteen matches in which Kirsten scored a century. As of November 2016, he is thirtieth among all-time century makers, and sixth in the equivalent list for South Africa.

## Key

Key :
| Symbol | Meaning |
| * | Remained not out |
| ‡ | Man of the match |
| Pos. | Position in the batting order |
| Balls | Balls faced |
| Inn. | The innings of the match |
| Test | The number of the Test match played in that series |
| S/R. | Strike rate during the innings |
| H/A/N | Venue was at home (South Africa), away or neutral. |
| Date | Match starting day |
| Lost | The match was lost by South Africa. |
| Won | The match was won by South Africa. |
| Drawn | The match was drawn. |

## Test cricket centuries

List of Test centuries scored by Gary Kirsten :
| No. | Score | Against | Pos. | Inn. | Test | Venue | H/A/N | Date | Result |
| 1 | 110 | England | 2 | 1 | 2/5 | The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg | Home | 30 November 1995 | Drawn |
| 2 ‡ | 102 | India | 2 | 1 | 2/3 | Eden Gardens, Kolkata | Away | 27 November 19961 | Won |
| 3 ‡ | 133 | India | 2 | 3 | 2/3 | Eden Gardens, Kolkata | Away | 27 November 19962 | Won |
| 4 | 103 | India | 2 | 1 | 2/3 | Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town | Home | 2 January 1997 | Won |
| 5 | 100* | Pakistan | 1 | 1 | 3/3 | Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad | Away | 24 October 1997 | Won |
| 6 | 108* | Australia | 1 | 3 | 3/3 | Adelaide Oval, Adelaide | Away | 30 January 1998 | Drawn |
| 7 | 210 | England | 1 | 1 | 3/5 | Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Manchester | Away | 2 July 1998 | Drawn |
| 8 ‡ | 134 | West Indies | 1 | 3 | 5/5 | SuperSport Park, Centurion | Home | 15 January 1999 | Won |
| 9 | 128 | New Zealand | 1 | 1 | 1/3 | Eden Park, Auckland | Away | 27 February 1999 | Drawn |
| 10 ‡ | 275 | England | 1 | 3 | 3/5 | Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban | Home | 26 December 1999 | Drawn |
| 11 ‡ | 180 | Sri Lanka | 2 | 1 | 1/3 | Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban | Home | 26 December 2000 | Drawn |
| 12 ‡ | 150 | West Indies | 1 | 2 | 1/5 | Bourda Cricket Ground, Georgetown | Away | 9 March 2001 | Drawn |
| 13 | 220 | Zimbabwe | 2 | 1 | 1/2 | Harare Sports Club, Harare | Away | 7 September 2001 | Won |
| 14 | 153 | Australia | 2 | 3 | 3/3 | Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney | Away | 2 January 2002 | Lost |
| 15 | 150 | Bangladesh | 3 | 1 | 1/2 | Buffalo Park, East London | Home | 18 October 2002 | Won |
| 16 | 160 | Bangladesh | 3 | 2 | 2/2 | Senwes Park, Potchefstroom | Home | 25 October 2002 | Won |
| 17 | 108 | England | 3 | 2 | 2/5 | Lord's Cricket Ground, London | Away | 31 July 2003 | Won |
| 18 ‡ | 130 | England | 3 | 1 | 4/5 | Headingley, Leeds | Away | 21 August 2003 | Won |
| 19 ‡ | 118 | Pakistan | 4 | 3 | 2/2 | Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad | Away | 24 October 2003 | Drawn |
| 20 | 137 | West Indies | 5 | 2 | 2/4 | Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban | Home | 26 December 2003 | Won |
| 21 | 137 | New Zealand | 5 | 1 | 1/3 | Westpac Park, Hamilton | Away | 10 March 2004 | Drawn |

## One Day International centuries

List of ODI centuries scored by Gary Kirsten :
| No. | Score | Balls | Against | Pos. | Inn. | S/R | Venue | H/A/N | Date | Result |
| 1 | 112* | 137 | Australia | 2 | 1 | 81.75 | Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne | Away | 21 January 1994 | Won |
| 2 ‡ | 116 | 126 | England | 2 | 2 | 92.06 | SuperSport Park, Centurion | Home | 14 January 1996 | Won |
| 3 ‡ | 188* | 159 | United Arab Emirates | 2 | 1 | 118.23 | Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi | Neutral | 16 February 1996 | Won |
| 4 | 106 | 116 | India | 1 | 1 | 91.37 | Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah | Neutral | 14 April 1996 | Won |
| 5 ‡ | 115* | 142 | India | 1 | 1 | 80.98 | Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah | Neutral | 19 April 1996 | Won |
| 6 ‡ | 118* | 127 | Pakistan | 2 | 2 | 92.91 | Nairobi Gymkhana Club, Nairobi | Neutral | 6 October 1996 | Won |
| 7 ‡ | 105* | 134 | Australia | 2 | 2 | 78.35 | Nehru Stadium, Indore | Away | 19 October 1996 | Won |
| 8 ‡ | 103 | 113 | New Zealand | 1 | 1 | 91.15 | Brisbane Cricket Ground, Brisbane | Neutral | 9 January 1998 | Won |
| 9 ‡ | 115 | 123 | India | 1 | 1 | 93.49 | Nehru Stadium, Kochi | Away | 9 March 2000 | Lost |
| 10 ‡ | 101 | 107 | New Zealand | 2 | 2 | 94.39 | De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley | Home | 28 October 2000 | Won |
| 11 ‡ | 133* | 155 | India | 1 | 2 | 85.80 | The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg | Home | 5 October 2001 | Won |
| 12 | 124 | 130 | Kenya | 1 | 1 | 95.38 | Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town | Home | 22 October 2001 | Won |
| 13 ‡ | 102* | 118 | Pakistan | 2 | 2 | 86.44 | Boland Park, Paarl | Home | 16 December 2002 | Won |