Bangalore: Scoring a Test century is every cricketers' dream. And to achieve 20 tons indeed requires a lot of guts and gumption.

Aravinda de Silva of Sri Lanka accomplished this rare feat and joined this select list when he slammed a double century against the babes of cricket Bangladesh in the first Test at Colombo on July 22.

He is the first Sri Lankan and the 19th player in all to score 20 or more centuries in Tests. The list now comprises 7 Australians, 5 Englishmen, 3 Indians, 2 West Indians and a lone Pakistani, apart from de Silva of Sri Lanka.

Sunil Gavaskar of India leads the list with a world record 34 centuries from 125 matches. Sir Donald Bradman comes next with 29 along with Sachin Tendulkar of India with an equal number of centuries.

Run wise Allan Border of Australia tops the table with 11,174 runs from 156 Tests. He has also scored most Test fifties.

Average wise Bradman stands head and shoulders above the rest with an almost unreachable average of 99.94.

C G Greenidge, C H Lloyd (both West Indies), L Hutton of England and M A Taylor of Australia narrowly missed the rare feat of scoring 20 Test hundreds as they all finished up with 19 Test tons in their career.

The following is the list of elite players, who have the distinction of scoring 20 or more centuries in Tests:

Sl No	Player		For	100s	M	Runs	HS	Ave	50s
1	Gavaskar	SM	Ind	34	125	10122	236*	51.12	45
2	Bradman	DG	Aus	29	52	6996	334	99.94	13
3	Tendulkar	SR	Ind	29	96	8004	217	57.58	32
4	Waugh	SR	Aus	27	148	9600	200	50	44
5	Border	AR	Aus	27	156	11174	205	50.56	63
6	Sobers	GSTA	WI	26	93	8032	365*	57.78	30
7	Richards	IVA	WI	24	121	8540	291	50.24	45
8	Chappell	GS	Aus	24	87	7110	247*	53.86	31
9	Javed Miandad		Pak	23	124	8832	280*	52.57	43
10	Boycott	G	Eng	22	108	8114	246*	47.73	42
11	Azharuddin	M	Ind	22	99	6215	199	45.04	21
12	Hammond	WR	Eng	22	85	7249	336*	58.46	24
13	Cowdrey	MC	Eng	22	114	7624	182	44.07	38
14	Boon	DC	Aus	21	107	7422	200	43.66	32
15	Harvey	RN	Aus	21	79	6149	205	48.42	24
16	Gooch	GA	Eng	20	118	8900	333	42.58	46
17	Barrington	KF	Eng	20	82	6806	256	58.67	35
18	Waugh	ME	Aus	20	125	7949	153*	42.28	46
19	de Silva	PA	SL	20	93	6364	267	43	22

Born on October 17, 1965 at Colombo, Pinnaduwage Aravinda de Silva is an attacking right-handed batsman and bowls off spin occasionally.

Popularly known as 'mad max', de Silva has amassed runs in both versions of the game. He made His Test debut against England in the first Test at Lord's in 1984.

The 206 he made against Bangladesh is his second double century in his 93rd Test and his highest individual score is 267 against New Zealand in the first Test at Wellington in 1990-91. He has proved that age does not bother him and that Test cricket is still active in his blood.

He now has a tally of 6,364 run from 93 Tests at an average of 43.00 at the end of the 2nd days play in the first Test against Bangladesh on July 22.

The 20 tons scored by de Silva are listed hereunder in chronological order:

Score	Vs	Inn	Test	Venue	Series
122	Pak	1st	1st	Faisalabad	1985-86
105	Pak	2nd	3rd	Karachi (NS)	1985-86
167	Aus	1st	1st	'The Gabba'	1989-90
267	NZ	1st	1st	Wellington	1990-91
123	NZ	2nd	3rd	Auckland	1990-91
148	Ind	1st	3rd	Colombo (PSS)	1993-94
127	Pak	1st	1st	Colombo (PSS)	1994-95
105	Pak	2nd	2nd	Faisalabad	1995-96
168	Pak	2nd	1st	Colombo (RPS)	1996-97
138	Pak	1st	2nd	Colombo (SSC)	1996-97
103	Pak	2nd	2nd	Colombo (SSC)	1996-97
126	Ind	1st	1st	Colombo (RPS)	1997-98
146	Ind	1st	2nd	Colombo (SSC)	1997-98
120	Ind	2nd	2nd	Colombo (SSC)	1997-98
110	Ind	2nd	1st	Mohali	1997-98
143	Zim	2nd	2nd	Colombo (SSC)	1997-98
152	Eng	1st	1st	The Oval	1998
112	Pak	1st	1st	Rawalpindi (CS)	1999-00
106	Eng	1st	1st	Galle	2000-01
206	BD	1st	1st	Colombo (PSS)	2002

Extras:
Murali does a Hadlee as SL scores record win