In just his second first-class appearance for New Zealand at the relatively late age of 29, Mark Richardson earlier this morning (New Zealand time) recorded the 128th triple century in first-class cricket history. It is only the 6th ever by a New Zealand batsman, and just the 2nd for New Zealand itself. It continues a remarkable calendar year for Richardson, bettering his previous career best made barely two months ago, an unbeaten double century against Sussex whilst on tour with the New Zealand 'A' side.
Richardson's innings was the keystone of New Zealand effort to record it's highest ever first-class total of 677 for seven declared in the process, also breaking various other Zimbabwe first-class records at the same time.
Richardson joins the exclusive club of former Otago representatives to have scored triple centuries in first-class cricket with the four other players sharing the previous five centuries being:
Playing for Otago in the New Zealand domestic first-class competition, the Shell Trophy, then selected for the New Zealand 'A' side to tour England, and now even higher honours with the New Zealand side in Zimbabwe, his playing record and statistics during the 2000 calendar year is as follows:
