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Of two great builders

AFP, Cairns
Cricket
The focus on building partnerships rather than individual scores is behind the outstanding success of trailblazing Australian opening combination Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer.
The left-handed pair gave Australia what could prove a matchwinning opening stand of 255 to propel Ricky Ponting's side to 370 for two off 90 overs on the opening day of the second cricket Test against Sri Lanka here on Friday.
Given the batsmen to come Australia could be looking at a first innings total of around 600 sometime during Saturday's second day's play.
It was Langer and Hayden's sixth double-century opening partnership -- the most in Tests -- in just under three years' batting together and their 11th century opening stand in 58 innings.
Since they came together at The Oval against England in August 2001, Langer and Hayden have accumulated 3,490 runs at an average of 60.17 each time they come out to bat in Tests.
Their highest stand together pushed them past the legendary English 1920s opening pair of Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe as the fifth most-prolific scoring opening pair in Tests.
Only crack West Indian pair Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes (16) and Hobbs-Sutcliffe (15) have generated more century opening stands in Test cricket than the Australian duo's eleven.
The two disparate players bring an imposing amalgam of talent to the all-conquering Australian team.
"Those little partnerships you have along the way motivate us, it's a great little team within a team and that's not just with Justin either, that's with Justin and Ricky (Ponting) and right down the line," Hayden said.
"It's a great mindset to have, it takes away from your own performance and bases it around your
team, it's such a great spirit in the batting lineup. You have seven batsmen all keen to make good partnerships amongst each other.
Langer added: "It takes all the focus by concentrating on your partnership, it takes all the focus off you individually and until you get to 98 or 198 in the partnership then you start getting nervous for the partnership."
Hayden held the world record of 380 against Zimbabwe in Perth last year before it was superseded by Brian Lara's 400 not out against
England in Antigua.
He said: "We do play such a contrasting of styles as well, our strengths are in very different areas and that makes it difficult to bowl at so from a partnership point of view we talk about left and righthanders."
"But it can be equally as damaging with having two left handers or two right handers taking the
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different lines that we both play."
FACTFILE
Test partnership records shared by Australian openers Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden after the first day of the second cricket Test against Sri Lanka here on Friday: Double-century partnerships 255 v SL at Cairns 2004
242 v WI at Antigua 2002-03
224 v N Z at Brisbane 2001-02
223 v NZ at Hobart 2001-02
219 v S A at Sydney 2001-02
202 v SA at Melbourne 2001-02
Most double-century partnerships
6 -- Matthew Hayden/Justin Langer (AUS)
4 -- Gordon Greenidge/Desmond
Haynes (WI)
4 -- Mike Atherton/Graham Gooch (ENG)
4 -- Sourav Ganguly/Sachin
Tendulkar (IND)
Most opening century partner-
ships
16 -- Gordon Greenidge/Desmond Haynes (WI)
15 -- Jack Hobbs/Herbert Sutcliffe (ENG)
11 -- Matthew Hayden/Justin Langer (AUS)
Leading Test cricket opening partnerships
Leading opening Test cricket batting partnerships by aggregate (batsmen, country, years, innings, runs, average):
Gordon Greenidge/Desmond
Haynes (WI) 1978-1991 148
6057 40.93
Mark Taylor/Michael Slater (AUS) 1993-1999 78 3806 48.79
Marvan Atapattu/Sanath Jayasuriya (SRI) 1999-2004 96 3538 36.85
Bob Simpson/Bill Lawry (AUS) 1961-1967 62 3533 57.92
Justin Langer/Matthew Hayden (AUS) 2001-2004 58 3490
60.17
Jack Hobbs/Herbert Sutcliffe (ENG) 1924-1930 38 3249 87.81