Cairns: The king of sixes

Chris Cairns got a world record on his name for the most sixes in Tests during his thunderous assault on English bowlers in the first innings of the first Test at Lord's on Friday.

The New Zealand all rounder hit 10 fours and four towering sixes during his innings of 82, which came off only 47 balls.

His first six was a pull shot of Simon Jones. Then he hit a ball from Steve Harmison off the back foot over cover to equal Vivian Richards' record of 84 sixes. He then claimed the record for himself with an immensely high hit to mid-wicket off Andrew Flintoff and then finished off with another extra cover blast before being caught at fine leg by Harmison.

Cairns has got one of the highest percentages of runs scored in sixes. Currently he has scored 3,242 runs in Tests. 516 of his Test runs - or about 15.92% - have come in sixes. Viv Richards scored 8,540 runs in his career. Just 5.90% of his runs - 504 - came in sixes.

Among the batsmen who have hit atleast 25 sixes in a Test career, the person with the highest percentage of runs scored in sixes is Michael Holding. He scored 910 runs in his Test career and walloped 36 sixes along the way. So, a whopping 23.74% of Holding's runs came in sixes.

Funnily enough, his father also beats Cairns when it comes to percentage of runs scored in sixes. Lance Cairns scored 928 runs in his Test career and hit 28 sixes. So 18.10 % of his runs were in sixes. But of those who have hit 50 or more sixes in their Test careers, Cairns is the clear leader when it comes to the amount of runs scored in sixes compared with the overall career total. Of the players capable of breaking whatever record he has achieved by the end of the third Test in Trent Bridge, Brian Lara (65) and Matthew Hayden (60) are the closest.