Chennai, March 28:

Virender Sehwag smashed the fastest recorded triple century in history as India gave South Africa a dose of their own medicine in the first cricket Test on Friday.

Sehwag hit 309 not out off 292 balls as the hosts made light of South Africa’s daunting first innings 540 to pile up 468-1 by stumps on the third day. When he reached 300 off 278 balls, Sehwag surpassed the previous fastest recorded triple ton from 362 balls by Australian Matthew Hayden against Zimbabwe in Perth in 2003-2004.

Only 19 of the 22 triple centuries in Test history have the number of balls faced recorded against them. Those that miss out are Garfield Sobers’s 365 not out, Wally Hammond’s unbeaten 336 and Hanif Mohammad’s 337. Sehwag hit 42 boundaries and five sixes in the second triple century of his career, having made 309 against Pakistan in Multan in 2004. No other Indian has achieved the feat even once.

Sehwag joins Australian legend Don Bradman and West Indian Brian Lara as the only batsmen to have crossed the 300-run mark twice in their Test careers.

Sehwag put on 213 for the first wicket with Wasim Jaffer (73) and 255 for the unbroken second with Rahul Dravid (65). Dravid, who took his career tally to 9,985 runs by stumps, needs only 15 more to become the sixth batsman to complete 10,000 Test runs.