Tests during his debut series, and was third amongst West Indian batsmen in terms of both runs scored and batting average, getting 288 runs at 57.60. Over the following couple of years, Chanderpaul was in and out of the West Indian Test side, missing a visit by Australia altogether. Dominating the arena In his first 18 Test matches, Chanderpaul scored 1,232 runs at an average of 49.28, but despite scoring thirteen half-centuries, his highest score was 82; a Test century eluded him. He reached the milestone in his nineteenth Test, scoring 137 against India. Just over a month later, he repeated the feat in One Day International cricket, striking his maiden century in the format, scoring 109 runs, also against India. Chanderpaul scored a further century in each of 1998, in a Test match against England, and 1999, in an ODI against South Africa. In the latter match, Chanderpaul and Carl Hooper were the only West Indian batsmen to reach double figures while batting – Chanderpaul scored 150, and Hooper reached 108. Their partnership of 226 was at the time, a record in ODIs for the West Indies, and Chanderpaul's individual total is his highest in ODIs. During this early period of his international career, Chanderpaul suffered with a negative reputation. Along with his failure to convert half-centuries into centuries, he had a tendency to miss matches which was perceived as hypochondria. He was also in the news for late-night partying; on one occasion in 1999, he shot a policeman in the mistaken belief that he was a thief. His career took a turn for the positive in 2000, when he had surgery on his foot to remove a floating bone. Free of his foot injury, Chanderpaul enjoyed the best series of his career to that point when he scored centuries in three of the five Test matches against India. In addition to his centuries, he also scored three half-centuries, and batted for a record 1,513 minutes between dismissals. The following year, against Australia, Chanderpaul scored a century from 69 balls – which at the time was the third fastest Test century. Later in that same series, the two sides scored exactly the same total in their respective first innings, and Australia then reached 417 in their second, leaving West Indies requiring 418 runs to win. No side had ever successfully chased that many runs to win in a Test