Bucknored!

ICC might now look at the possibility of adding a new mode of dismissal in the rule books – Bucknored. This is the mode that genuinely describes Rahul Dravid’s dismissal today. Bucknor’s decision to rule Rahul Dravid out caught behind when the bat was nowhere near the ball was so shockingly poor that even a normally cool Dravid was forced to utter - "How many more.....?"

As Harsha Bhogle promptly put it, this was the question whole India was asking - "How many more, Mr.Bucknor?" The same Bucknor had earlier failed to hear a thick edge from Andrew Symonds, when he had made only 30. Symonds went on to make his highest Test score and changed the course of the match.Dravid's dismissal was the turning point of the game as it opened the floodgates wide opened. India's troubles were further compounded by another wrong decision meeted out to Sourav Ganguly, this time by umpire Mark Benson.

At least Benson does not give an impression of being biased against India. There is something definitely wrong with Bucknor when he officiates in matches involving India. This is not the first time Indians have been screwed by Steve Bucknor. The umpire has a history of confrontations with the Indian team. We take a look at some of past such instances:

Steve Bucknor v India

Steve Bucknor: Umpired in 21 India Tests, India has won five of them

1992-93: India vs South Africa, Johannesburg
With South Africa reeling at 73-5, Indians appeal for Jhonty Rhodes’ run-out. Bucknor refuses to take Third Umpire’s help. Replays show Rhodes, who went on to play a match-saving innings, was clearly short of the crease.
Result: Match drawn

1998-99: India vs Pakistan, Kolkata
Shoaib Akhtar obstructs Sachin Tendulkar as he fails to make it to the crease. Bucknor turns a blind eye and refers the matter to the TV umpire. As the red light flashes and Tendulkar walks to the dressing room, Eden erupts.
Result: Pakistan won

2003-04: India vs Australia, Brisbane
Tendulkar is given out lbw when the ball hit on a knee roll and the line was just outside the off-stump. The bowler was Jason Gillespie and India slips after a good start
Result: Match drawn

2003-04: India vs Australia, Sydney
India is on the verge of history of a series win on the final day. Bucknor refuses a number of close leg-before decisions against the Aussies. India falls short of time. Skipper Sourav Ganguly in his post-series report to ICC gives Bucknor very poor ratings with adverse comments.
Result: Match drawn

2003-04: India vs Pakistan, Lahore
India is already on the backfoot in the series for the first time after an awful batting display. Five opportunities missed while bowling, four of them adjudicated by Bucknor. This forces Indian coach John Wright to complain to match-referee Ranjan Madugalle during the day’s play.
Result: India lost

2004-05: India vs Pakistan, Kolkata
Sachin Tendulkar walked back to the dressing room with tears in his eyes as Bucknor (standing in his 100th Test) declared him out at 52 after his bat clearly missed the ball sent down by Abdul Razzaq and none of the Pakistanis, other than the bowler, appealed.
Result: India won

Australia heading for another world record

The win against India today was Australia's 15th in a row since the Melbourne Test against South Africa in December 2005 when it registered a 184-run win. Australia is now heading for world record of most consecutive wins in Test cricket. The current record is of 16 consecutive wins also held by Australia between 1999 and 2001.
Interestingly Australia's victory march was interrupted by India last time. So, it will be interesting to see if India can stop them once again from achieving a new high.

Most consecutive wins in Test cricket
Mts For          Period      Captain (at start)
16  Australia    1999-2001   Steve Waugh
15* Australia    2005-2007   Ricky Ponting
11  West Indies  1984        Clive Lloyd
 9  Sri Lanka    2001-2002   Sanath Jayasuriya
 9  South Africa 2002-2003   Mark Boucher

*- unbroken sequence

UPDATE - With the 122-run win at Sydney Australia has equalled the World Record of most consecutive wins

India's largest defeats in Test cricket

Australia today handed India its third biggest defeat in Test matches. It was the sixth time India was losing a Test by 300 runs margin. Interestingly three of India's six biggest defeats have come against Australia. Also, all of these defeats have come after 1990.

Opponent      Margin      Venue     Season        Captain
Australia     342 runs    Nagpur    2004-05       Rahul Dravid
Pakistan      341 runs    Karachi   2005-06       Rahul Dravid
Australia     337 runs    Melbourne 2007-08       Anil Kumble
South Africa  329 runs    Kolkata   1996-97       Sachin Tendulkar
South Africa  328 runs    Durban    1996-97       Sachin Tendulkar
Australia     300 runs    Perth     1991-92       M Azharuddin

Note: India lost to West Indies at Kolkata in 1958-59 by innings and 336 runs, which remains India's largest ever innings defeat.

The "real" difference between two teams in Melbourne Test

This is how the openers, middle order batsmen and lower-order batsmen of the two sides performed in the Melbourne Test. The middle-order of both sides had almost identical success or failure depending upon how you perceive it.It was the performance of the openers (and to some extent lower order) that made all the difference in the end.

 
               Openers 
           Balls Runs   Avg    SR 
Australia   448   288  72.00  50.89 
India       247    40  10.00  16.19 
     
             Middle Order (3-7) 
           Balls Runs   Avg    SR 
Australia   475   275  27.50  57.89 
India       478   244  24.40  51.04 
     
            Lower Order (8-11) 
           Balls  Runs  Avg    SR 
Australia   183    99  33.00  54.09 
India       163    52   8.66  31.90 

Slowest batting displays by Indian batsmen in a match

Rahul Dravid is continuing with his new found affection for the stonewalling. After getting support from Indian thinktank which did not find anything wrong with Dravid's first innings effort of scoring 5 runs off 66 balls, Dravid produced another gem in the second innings, scoring 16 in 114 balls. He might have tried to even 'better' his first innings performance, but an edge through gully -almost caught by diving Clarke- gave him a boundary and distorted his figures somewhat.

In all Dravid scored 21 runs in the match off 180 balls in more than four hours' stay at the wicket - a strike rate of 11.66. Dravid's performance is infact the third worst by any Indian in a match (batting in both the innings and facing at least 100 balls in the match). In fact three out of six worst performances for India have come from Dravid's bat only.

The following table lists the worst batting performances by Indian players in a match:

SR        Batsman           
10.41   RJ Shastri (15)       v South Africa,Port Elizabeth,1992-93
11.01   ML Jaisimha (13)   v Australia,Sydney,1967-68
11.66   R Dravid (21)          v Australia,Melbourne,2007-08
13.72   AD Gaekwad (14)   v England,Lord's,1979
15.75   R Dravid (23)          v Australia,Nagpur,2004-05
15.86   R Dravid (23)          v Australia,Melbourne,1999-00
16.04   RJ Shastri (30)       v South Africa,Johannesburg,1992-93
16.42   CPS Chauhan (23)  v England,Kanpur,1972-73
16.50   SM Patil (17)           v England,Kolkata,1981-82
17.39   KS More (20)          v Australia,Brisbane,1991-92

Stonewalling at its best!

Ghosts of the Oval Test returned back to haunt Rahul Dravid today, who made a tortured 5 off 66 balls at Melbourne while opening the Indian innings.

At Oval in 2007 Dravid batted on the fourth day in a manner as if he was trying to save the game for India, forgetting that it was actually England (and not India) who was 319 runs behind! Dravid batted for 140 minutes on that day scoring a painful 12, which virtually grabbed India a draw from the jaws of victory. Dravid's batting at Melbourne today was no different from his Oval's effort as he managed a meagre 5 after struggling for about 98 minutes on the crease. He was perhaps trying to fetch India a draw, forgetting that it is only the second day of the match!

It was only after spending 64 minutes on the crease today that Dravid finally managed to open his account (off the 41st delivery he faced). Where does Dravid's performance stand? There have been quite a few 'better' performances than Dravid's today's stonewalling. New Zealand's Geoff Allott once batted for 101 minutes and still failed to open his account. But most of such performances came from lower order batsmen who had no or very little batting abilities or were batting under tremendous pressure. So, they can't really be blamed for their slow scoring. Dravid's performance is the fourth worst performance in entire Test history if we take into consideration the performances of the specialist batsmen only.

Longest wait in opening the account

Mins Batsman
70... Bill Murdoch (Aus)..... v England,Sydney,1882-83
67... Chris Tavare (Eng)..... v Pakistan,Lord's,1982
66... John Wright (NZ)........ v Australia,Wellington,1981-82
64... Rahul Dravid (Ind)...... v Australia,Melbourne,2007-08
63... Chris Tavare (Eng)...... v Australia,Perth,1982-83
62... Mark Taylor (Aus)....... v England,Sydney,1994-95

100 Test Heroes

Sourav Ganguly today became only the seventh Indian to complete century of Test matches.Interestingly he is the oldest among Indians to accomplish this feat at 35 years 171 days, breaking Sunil Gavaskar’s Indian record. Sachin Tendulkar is the youngest Indian to do so, while Rahul Dravid took least time (from the date of debut) in playing his 100th Test.


Indian players with 100 Test appearances

Player          First Test                100th Test   Time Span    Age
Sunil Gavaskar  Mar 6,1971                Oct 17,1984  13Y 225D   35Y 99D
                v W.Indies,Port-of-Spain  v Pakistan,Lahore 
D.Vengsarkar    Jan 24,1976               Nov 24,1988  12Y 305D   32Y 232D
                v New Zealand,Auckland    v New Zealand,Mumbai 
Kapil Dev       Oct 16,1978               Nov 15,1989  11Y  30D   30Y 313D
                v Pakistan,Faisalabad     v Pakistan,Karachi 
S.Tendulkar     Nov 15,1989               Sep 5,2002   12Y 294D   29Y 134D
                v Pakistan,Karachi        v England,The Oval 
Anil Kumble     Aug 9,1990                Dec 18,2005  15Y 131D   35Y  62D
                v England, Manchester     v Sri Lanka,Ahmedabad 
Rahul Dravid    Jun 20,1996               Mar 18,2006   9Y 271D   33Y  66D
                v England, Lord's         v England,Mumbai 
Sourav Ganguly  Jun 20,1996               Dec 26,2007  11Y 189D   35Y 171D
                v England, Lord's         v Australia, Melbourne 

Note: Dravid's tally included World XI-Australia Super 'Test' played at Sydney in October 2005.His 100th game for India was against West Indies at St.John's in June 2006

The following table shows the career aggregate of Indians before the start of their 100th Tests:

                   Inns Runs   Hs   Avg  100s 50s 0s Wkts Avg
Sunil Gavaskar     174  8394  236* 52.46  30  36  10   1  177.00
Dilip Vengsarkar   159  6331  166  46.21  17  31  12   0    -
Kapil Dev          143  4087  163  31.20   6  21  12 347   29.02
Sachin Tendulkar   159  8351  217  57.99  30  33  10  27   43.74
Anil Kumble        126  1687   88  16.87   0   3  13 478   28.03
Rahul Dravid       167  8492  270  58.16  22  41   6   1   39.00
Sourav Ganguly     161  6346  239  43.17  15  30   9  32   49.47

Note: M Azharuddin ended his career with 99 Tests having scored 6215 runs (avg 45.04) with 22 centuries and 21 fifties

Kumble is the only player to see India WINNING in his 100th Test. Gavaskar, Kapil and Tendulkar’s 100th Tests were drawn games, whereas Vengsarkar and Dravid ended on the losing sides.

The following table lists Indian players performances in their 100th Tests along with the result of that Test:

                   Batting     Bowling   Fielding  Result for India
                 Inns1 Inns2 Inns1 Inns2   Ct
Sunil Gavaskar    48    37     -    -       3      Drawn
Dilip Vengsarkar  25     0     -    -       2      lost by 136 runs
Kapil Dev         55     -   4-69  3-82     0      Drawn
Sachin Tendulkar  54     -   0-4    -       0      Drawn
Anil Kumble       21    29*  2-87  5-89     0      won by 259 runs
Rahul Dravid      52     9    -     -       2      lost by 212 runs
Sourav Ganguly    To be seen

Ganguly's feat

Sourav Ganguly today became only the third Indian batsman to aggregate 500 runs in a three-match series. At the end of fourth day's play, Ganguly's series aggregate stands at 506 runs at an average of 101.20. He, in fact, can get the Indian record on his name tomorrow. Virender Sehwag holds the distinction of highest run-aggregate in a three-match series for India. The details:

 
Batsman       Series          Mts Runs  Avg   100 50
V Sehwag      v Pak, 2004-05   3   544  90.66  2  1
SC Ganguly    v Pak, 2007-08   3   506 101.20  2  1
VVS Laxman    v Aus,2000-01    3   503  83.83  1  3
SM Gavaskar   v Pak, 1978-79   3   447  89.40  2  2
SR Tendulkar  v Aus,2000-01    3   446 111.50  2  1

Ganguly's performance is also the third best by any batsman in a three-match series against Pakistan as is detailed below:

 
Batsman          Series   Mts Runs   Avg   100 50
V Sehwag (Ind)   2004-05   3   544   90.66  2  1
MA Taylor (Aus)  1998-99   3   513  128.25  1  2
SC Ganguly (Ind) 2007-08   3   506  101.20  2  1
DI Gower (Eng)   1983-84   3   449  112.25  2  2
BC Lara (WI)     2006-07   3   448   89.60  2  1

A dubious distinction for Team India

The 70 extras conceded by India in Pakistan's first innings are the second most conceded by any side in an innings in Test history. West Indies -with 71 extras against Pakistan about 20 years back- still top the chart, but it is highly unlikely that they will remain there tomorrow. India can become the first side to concede 100 extras in an innings.The following table lists the sides conceding most extras in an innings:

Ex  Concd. by  Against       Venue       Season
71    WI       Pak (435)     Georgetown  1987-88
70    Ind      Pak (369-5)   Bangalore   2007-08
68    WI       Pak (291)     Bridgetown  1976-77
65    SL       Zim (319-8)   Harare      1994-95


Most extras conceded by India
Ex  Against        Venue        Season
70  Pak (369-5)    Bangalore    2007-08
60  Eng (633)      Birmingham   1979
58  SL (952-6)     Colombo RPS  1997
55  Eng (477-4)    The Oval     1990

Dinesh Karthik, already under-pressure for a pretty ordinary series with the bat so far, gave more ammunition to his critics with his performance behind the stumps today. The 31 byes allowed by Karthik are the maximum by any Indian keeper in a Test innings. He will struggle hard not to go beyond 37 tomorrow which are the maximum byes conceded by ANY keeper in an innings in Test history.

Most byes allowed by Indian keepers

Byes Opposition   Venue       Season   Keeper
31   Pak (369-5)  Bangalore   2007-08  Dinesh Karthik
29   Eng (559-8)  Kanpur      1963-64  Budhi Kunderan
28   SL (952-6)   Colombo RPS 1997     Nayan Mongia
24   SA (479)     Bangalore   1999-00  Nayan Mongia
24   NZ (251-7)   Mohali      1999-00  MSK Prasad

Younis - Yousuf pair sets a new record against India

Younis - Yousuf pair today made entry into the record books as the most prolific pair to bat against India. By the time Younis Khan was bowled trying to employ a reverse sweep against Harbhajan Singh, the duo had aggregated 1,372 runs in just nine innings -in which they have batted together against India- at a mind blowing average of 171.50, moving ahead of West Indian pair of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes who had aggregated 1,325 runs in 30 innings against India. Interestingly two Ys took only nine innings to obliterate West Indian pair’s record!

Out of nine occasions on which these two batted together against India, they were involved in six century partnerships and two fifty partnerships - indeed a mind-blowing performance.

 
Most prolific pairs against India:
Batsmen                              Inns Runs   Hs    Avg  100 50
Mohammad Yousuf & Younis Khan (Pak)    9  1372  319  171.50  6  2
CG Greenidge & DL Haynes (WI)         30  1325  296   45.68  2  6
Javed Miandad & Zaheer Abbas (Pak)    13  1137  287  103.36  4  3
Javed Miandad & Mudassar Nazar (Pak)   9   993  451  110.33  4  1
S Chanderpaul & CL Hooper (WI)        14   962  293   68.71  3  1
ML Hayden & JL Langer (Aus)           20   949  147   47.45  2  8
G Boycott & GA Gooch (Eng)            14   774  145   64.50  2  5
WM Lawry & RB Simpson (Aus)            9   753  191   83.66  2  5
ST Jayasuriya & RS Mahanama (SL)       3   671  576  223.66  1  1
MA Atherton & GA Gooch (Eng)           7   661  225   94.42  3  0

Although the pair’s average dipped from 185.71 (before today) to 171.50 after today’s “failure”, it still is the highest for any pair aggregating at least 1,000 runs against a specific country. The pair is well ahead of some of the great names in the game’s history as is shown below:

 
Most successful pairs against a particular country:
Batsmen                               Opp Inns Runs  Hs   Avg  100 50
Mohammad Yousuf & Younis Khan (Pak)   Ind   9  1372  319 171.50  6  2
DG Bradman & WH Ponsford (Aus)        Eng   6  1012  451 168.66  2  1
DPMD Jayawardene & KC Sangakkara (SL) SA    8  1304  624 163.00  4  2
Javed Miandad & Zaheer Abbas (Pak)    Ind  13  1137  287 103.36  4  3
ML Hayden & RT Ponting (Aus)          SA   13  1135  201  94.58  4  6
B Mitchell & AD Nourse (SA)           Eng  17  1300  190  86.66  4  6
JB Hobbs & H Sutcliffe (Eng)          Aus  30  2452  283  84.55 11  9

Reaching hundred with a six

Iran Pathan reached his maiden Test hundred in style - hitting Danish Kaneria for a six to move from 96 to 102. He, in the course, became only the seventh Indian to perform this feat. Tendulkar has done so as many as four times!

The following table lists Indian batsmen reaching the three figure mark with a six. Pathan follows into the foot-steps of Kapil Dev, who also performed this feat while scoring his maiden Test hundred. Sehwag also reached his triple hundred with a six.

 
Batsman                 Bowler              Opponent    Venue          Season
Polly Umrigar (130)     Sonny Ramadhin      West Indies Port-of-Spain  1952-53
Kapil Dev (126*)        Norbert Phillip     West Indies Delhi          1978-79
Sachin Tendulkar (179)  Courtney Walsh      West Indies Nagpur         1994-95
Sachin Tendulkar (122)  Min Patel           England     Birmingham     1996
M Azharuddin (163*)     Gavin Robertson     Australia   Calcutta       1997-98
Sachin Tendulkar (113)  Daniel Vettori      New Zealand Wellington     1998-99
Sachin Tendulkar (126)  Colin Miller        Australia   Chennai        2000-01
Rahul Dravid (233)      Jason Gillespie     Australia   Adelaide       2003-04
Virender Sehwag (309)   Shoaib Akhtar       Pakistan    Multan         2003-04
Irfan Pathan (102)      Danish Kaneria      Pakistan    Bangalore      2007-08

Highest innings by Indian batsmen

Sourav Ganguly completed his maiden double century in Bangalore Test. His innings is now the seventh highest by an Indian batsman. Incidentally Ganguly's 239 is the highest score by an Indian left-hander. The following table has the details:

Highest innings by Indian batsmen

 
Score Batsman      Opponent     Venue      Season
309  V Sehwag     v Pakistan    Multan     2003-04
281  VVS Laxman   v Australia   Kolkata    2000-01
270  R Dravid     v Pakistan    Rawalpindi 2003-04
254  V Sehwag     v Pakistan    Lahore     2005-06
248* SR Tendulkar v Bangladesh  Dhaka      2004-05
241* SR Tendulkar v Australia   Sydney     2003-04
239  SC Ganguly   v Pakistan    Bangalore  2007-08
236* SM Gavaskar  v West Indies Chennai    1983-84
233  R Dravid     v Australia   Adelaide   2003-04
231  MH Mankad    v New Zealand Chennai    1955-56

Highest innings by Indian left-handers

Runs Batsman      Opponent      Venue      Season
239  SC Ganguly   v Pakistan    Bangalore  2007-08
227  VG Kambli    v Zimbabwe    Delhi      1992-93
224  VG Kambli    v England     Mumbai     1992-93
173  SC Ganguly   v Sri Lanka   Mumbai     1997-98
169  Yuvraj Singh v Pakistan    Bangalore  2007-08

Highest innings by Indian left-handers against Pakistan

 
Runs Batsman       Venue        Season
239  SC Ganguly    Bangalore   2007-08
169  Yuvraj Singh  Bangalore   2007-08
122  Yuvraj Singh  Karachi     2005-06
112  Yuvraj Singh  Lahore      2003-04
110  DH Shodhan    Calcutta    1952-53
102  SC Ganguly    Calcutta    2007-08
102  Irfan Pathan  Bangalore   2007-08

A rare feat for Yuvraj

Yuvraj's 169 in Bangalore Test was not just the highest of his Test career, it was a treat for the spectators as well. Scoring 169 runs in just two sessions is no mean achievement by any yardstick. Yuvraj, in fact, performed the rare feat of scoring a century in a session. Only three Indians have done so before Yuvraj (not two as mentioned at various places in Indian media) - none on the first day of the match.

Yuvraj's innings - session wise

        
               Balls Runs    SR    4s/6s
Upto Lunch       4     0    0.00     -
Lunch to Tea     96   67   69.79    12
Tea to close    103  102   99.02    16/1

Indian batsmen scoring a hundred in a session

Runs Batsman           Opp      Venue    Season   Day Session
103 M Azharuddin (179) v Eng  Manchester 1990     3rd Lunch-Tea
121 VVS Laxman (167)   v Aus  Sydney     1999-00  3rd Tea-Close
109 V Sehwag (254)     v Pak  Lahore     2005-06  4th Lunch-Tea
102 Yuvraj Singh (169) v Pak  Bangalore  2007-08  1st Tea-Close

Sami in a new role

Mohammad Sami is turning out to be more successful with the bat than with the ball for Pakistan in this series.

In three innings in the series so far Sami has batted for more than seven hours and has been involved in two useful partnerships with Misbah-ul-Haq. In the first innings of Delhi Test, Misbah and Sami added 87 runs for the ninth wicket – the highest partnership for this wicket for Pakistan against India and remained unbeaten on 28 till the end. In the second innings of Delhi Test, he could contribute only 5 but more importantly defied the Indian bowlers for about an hour.

At Kolkata today he batted for nearly three hours for his 38 runs stitching a partnership of 91 runs with Misbah for the seventh wicket.

How important has been Sami for Pakistan can be gauged from the fact that once he was dismissed, the innings folded in no time. In first innings of Delhi Test, he remained unbeaten till the end. In the second innings, he was the ninth wicket to fall and innings folded just two minutes and one ball later. At Kolkata today,he was the seventh wicket to fall and last three wickets fell within 28 minutes and 32 balls.

 
Sami with the bat in the series so far  
                         Runs Mins Balls 4s 6s
Delhi Test - 1st inns    28*  194   101   3  1
Delhi Test - 2nd inns     5    53    25   1  0
Kolkata Test - 1st inns  38   177   123   2  1

A rare feat for Wasim Jaffer

In the Kolkata Test Wasim Jaffer followed his first innings marathon innings of 202 with yet another impressive show in the second dig,scoring 56 at a brisk pace. Jaffer, in the course, became only the fifth Indian batsman to score a double century and a fifty in the same Test. Jaffer is only the second Indian opener after Sunil Gavaskar to perform this feat.

Jaffer is the first Indian to do so against Pakistan. In fact there had been only two previous such instances against Pakistan.

Indian batsmen scoring a double hundred & a fifty in the same Test

 
Batsman       Scores    Opp  Venue         Season
SM Gavaskar  124  & 220 WI   Port-of-Spain 1970-71
SM Gavaskar  205  &  73 WI   Mumbai WS     1978-79
R Dravid     200* & 70* Zim  Delhi         2000-01
VVS Laxman    59  & 281 Aus  Calcutta      2000-01
R Dravid     222  &  73 NZ   Ahmedabad     2003-04
R Dravid     233  & 72* Aus  Adelaide      2003-04
SR Tendulkar 241* & 60* Aus  Sydney        2003-04
W Jaffer     202  &  56 Pak  Calcutta      2007-08

A double hundred & a fifty in the same Test against Pakistan

 
Batsman      Scores     For  Venue         Season
MA Taylor    334* &  92 Aus  Peshawar      1998-99
MS Sinclair  204* & 50* NZ   Christchurch  2000-01
W Jaffer     202  &  56 Ind  Calcutta      2007-08

Statistical Highlights, Delhi Test

· India went into this Test with only two specialist pacers (Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel). While the strategy of playing with two pacers seems to be a defensive one, it has paid rich dividends for India at least in recent times. Out of 12 such Tests played since 2005, India has won 8 and lost only one. Interestingly India has a higher winning percentage in away matches than the matches at home during this period!

· Anil Kumble became India’s 30th Test captain -third from Karnataka after Gundappa Viswanath and Rahul Dravid. At 37 years 36 days he became the third oldest player to lead India in a Test and 24th oldest captain in Test annals.

· Kumble also became the most ‘experienced’ player in Test cricket history to lead a Test side. Kumble had appeared in 118 Tests before making his captaincy debut,which puts him ahead of Steve Waugh's record who led Australia for the first time after playing 111 Tests.

· In the first innings Shoaib Malik became the first Pakistan captain to register a duck in India.Seven players had led Pakistan before in India and none of them had ever been dismissed for a duck.

· Kumble’s dismissal of Kamran Akmal in the first innings was his 50th wicket at Feroz Shah Kotla.He thus became the first Indian bowler to take 50 wickets on a particular venue.

· The ninth wicket partnership of 87 runs between Misbah-ul-Haq and Mohammad Sami is Pakistan’s best for this wicket against India, surpassing 70 between Mohammad Yousuf & Shoaib Akhtar at Rawalpindi and also between Mohammad Sami & Fazl-e-Akbar at Multan in 2003-04.

· Kumble’s first innings figures of 4-38 are the best by an Indian captain on debut.Previous best was Kapil Dev’s 4-45 v West Indies at Kingston in 1982-83.

· Sachin Tendulkar’s run-out was his fifth such dismissal in Test cricket. Interestingly three of these dismissals have come against Pakistan. The previous instances were at Faisalabad in 1989-90 and at Kolkata in 1998-99.

· The sixth wicket partnership of 115 runs between VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni is India’s best for this wicket against Pakistan obliterating the partnership between Vijay Hazare and Gul Mahomed in 1952-53.

· When Rahul Dravid snapped up Salman Butt in first slip off the bowling of Anil Kumble in the second innings, it provided the 50th instance of 'c Dravid b Kumble' entry appearing in a Test scorecard. The Kumble-Dravid pair became only the third bowler-fielder combination to be involved in 50 dismissals after Murali-Jayawardene (63) and Warne-Taylor (51).

· Zaheer Khan has taken his tally of wickets to 35 in seven Tests at an average of 21.91 in 2007. Only South Africa’s Dale Steyn (39 wickets in six Tests) has taken more.

· When he hit Mohammad Sami between mid-on and mid-wicket to take his score from 23 to 27 on day four, Sachin Tendulkar surpassed Allan Border's tally to become second highest run-scorer in Test cricket behind Brian Lara. Border had accumulated 11,174 runs in 156 Tests (and 265 innings), but Tendulkar overhauled his tally taking 15 Tests and 37 innings lesser.

· The Delhi Test provided only the sixth instance of India winning a Test after chasing a fourth innings target of 200 runs or more. Interestingly this is only the second such instance on Indian soil. The earlier one was about 43 years back - versus Australia at Bombay in 1964-65.

· The win against Pakistan is India's seventh consecutive win at Feroz Shah Kotla. Overall also Kotla has been a lucky ground for India as far as chasing a fourth innings target is concerned. India has been made to chase a fourth innings target on 8 occasions at Kotla - winning six and drawing two. The six wins at Kotla (chasing a fourth innings target) are the maximum for India on any ground.

· Anil Kumble became only the seventh Indian player to start his captaincy stint with a win. Others to do so are - Polly Umrigar, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag.

· Kumble won his tenth Man of the Match award in Tests, which takes him at par with Tendulkar's tally. However, Tendulkar has played 141 matches as against Kumble's 119 so statistically speaking Kumble's performance carries more weight. Both Kumble and Tendulkar have also won FOUR man of the series awards.

· Kumble became the first Indian player to win MoM award on the captaincy debut.

Free-hits

When concept of a free-hit was introduced by the ICC to penalise a bowler bowling a no-ball, it was believed that this novel idea would be a great hit among the spectators. With no fear of getting out, batsman can hit the ball out of the ground. However this new idea has not lived upto the hype it generated. In the six games of this India-Australia series so far nine free-hits have been seen. On four occasions the batsmen could not score any run of the free-hit (Tendulkar missed the opportunity not once but twice).On one occasion just a single was scored and on three occasions a couple of runs were scored. Only one boundary has come off a free-hit so far in the series and interestingly it came against a no-ball, which actually was NOT a no-ball. Umpire Suresh Shastri got it all wrong in declaring a delivery from James Hopes a no-ball at Kochi when he had part of his foot clearly behind the crease. The next delivery, a free-hit, was promptly sent out of boundary by Yuvraj Singh.

Australian batsmen and the free-hits

Venue       Date       Bowler     Batsman  Runs
Bangalore  29-Sep-07  Sreesanth   Haddin     0
Bangalore  29-Sep-07  Zaheer      Hopes      2
Nagpur     14-Oct-07  Kartik      Haddin     2

Indian batsmen and the free-hits

Venue      Date      Bowler       Batsman  Runs
Kochi     02-Oct-07   Lee         Tendulkar 0
Kochi     02-Oct-07   Hopes       Yuvraj    6
Kochi     02-Oct-07   Lee         Powar     0
Hyderabad 05-Oct-07   Lee         Tendulkar 0
Baroda    11-Oct-07   Lee         Zaheer    2
Nagpur    14-Oct-07   Lee         Ganguly   1

Yet another series defeat

Chasing a huge victory target at Nagpur to remain in the series, Indians would have fancied their chances when Ganguly and Tendulkar put on a solid century opening partnership, which was followed by another useful partnership for the second wicket between Ganguly and Pathan. India should have pulled off a memorable victory from this position, however some inexplicable captaincy from Dhoni (which saw totally out of form Dravid being sent at number four) coupled with totally defensive attitude of Ganguly, Yuvraj and Dravid put the asking rate out of the reach.

Between 34th and 42nd overs Indians scored only 33 runs in 9 overs. Indian batsmen played as many as 30 dot balls during this period and could hit only one boundary. It was a collective failure and any particular batsman cannot be singled out, as even Dhoni and Uthappa failed to up the scoring rate. Dhoni and Uthappa made amends thereafter, but by then the asking rate had become too high to be achieved.

Indian innings
Overs   Runs Wkts Run-Rate
1-33    189    2    5.72
34-42    33    3    3.66
43-50    77    2    9.62

....and this is how various batsmen played during this phase of nine overs

         Balls Dots Runs 4s   SR
Ganguly   13    6    8    0  61.53
Dravid    13    6    7    0  53.84
Yuvraj    11    8    6    1  54.54
Dhoni     11    7    4    0  36.36
Uthappa    6    3    3    0  50.00

The approach of some of the Indian batsmen today was baffling to say the least. It was as if the match was being played on two different strips. India needed to score at a rate of 106 (runs per 100 balls) to win the match. While the combination of Sachin,Pathan,Dhoni and Uthappa even bettered the required scoring-rate, the three senior most guys in Ganguly, Dravid and Yuvraj managed to score at a rate of only 73, which made all the difference in the end.

                                    Balls  Runs   SR
Sachin + Pathan + Dhoni + Uthappa   158    171  108.23
Ganguly + Dravid + Yuvraj           135     99   73.33

Where India lost the plot at Manchester

So India managed to grab defeat from the jaws of victory at Manchester. Losing seven wickets in first 25 overs with only 114 runs on the board, the match was almost over for England. Inexplicably skipper Rahul Dravid preferred to play safe rather than go for a kill, removed pacers and employed spinners in tandem. This tactical blunder from Dravid changed the direction of the game altogether.

As the following table will show you, it was pacers who had done most of the damage till that time. English batsmen looked completely out of sort in dealing with the short ball particularly against Ajit Agarkar. The introduction of spinners from both the ends allowed both Bopara and Broad to settle down. The earlier assault by top-order had already ensured that the asking rate was never going to be too much and the two batsmen could play the waiting game. Neither Powar nor Chawla were able to extract any exceptional assistance from the surface, the pair of Bopara and Broad had no problem in defending most of the balls and making use of occasional bad deliveries. As runs started to come in ones and twos, Indian fielders wilted under pressure doing what they know best - fumbling and overthrowing at every possible opportunity, which in turn led to the bowlers getting panicky and soon there was chaos all around in Indian camp.

England at the time of losing seventh wicket

           Balls Runs Wkts Batsmen out of control

vs Pacers   109   93   5      22 (20%)
vs Spinners  35   17   1       5 (14%)

Dravid’s error becomes even more glaring considering the fact that the pacers had 12 more overs to bowl at that stage - seven for RP Singh, four for Zaheer Khan and one for Ajit Agarkar. Not only Dravid used spinners from both the ends, he also used part-timers like Tendulkar and Yuvraj even at the expense of RP Singh, who was grossly underbowled. This complete lack of faith in your frontline bowlers is just baffling particularly after they had dismissed six top-order batsmen in just 18 overs.

One more wicket at that stage and the series would have been levelled at 2-2 as neither James Anderson nor Monty Panesar has any credentials with the bat. But Dravid’s uninspiring and defensive captaincy drifted the game away from India.

One wonders if Dravid is the right kind of captain for India. He is simply too conventional - more like a captain of 1980s as Kapil Dev observed - always preferring ‘not losing’ to ‘winning’. This approach robbed Indians of a certain win at the Oval. At Manchester it turned the game on its head.

Poor travellers ? no more !

Rahul Dravid's reluctance in enforcing the follow-on in Oval Test might have robbed India of a great victory, but his 'safety-first' approach made him the first Indian captain to win a Test series in England in 21 years. India has always been a formidable side at home, but somehow it could not transform the potential it had into wins while playing abroad. That India registered its first Test victory overseas after almost 35 years is a disgrace in itself.

But things are changing now and there is a distinct shift in India's fortunes while playing abroad in this decade. The number of series wins abroad in these 8 years is in fact more than what India has managed to achieve in first 67 years (from 1932 to 1999) !

Summary of India's series-wins abroad
                    Mts  Won Lost Drawn  Won%
From 1932 to 1999   46    5   31   10   10.86
2000 onwards        16    7    6    3   43.75

Not only the series wins, the Test victories by India in this short period far outnumber the victories registered in first 67 years.

Summary of India's Test-wins abroad

                    Mts  Won Lost Drawn  Won%
From 1932 to 1999   155   13  69   73    8.38
2000 onwards         46   16  15   15   34.78

This is after 21 years India registered a series win in England, the other two occasions were – in 1971 and 1986.

India's series wins in England

Season Mts Result Captain
1971    3   1-0   Ajit Wadekar
1986    3   2-0   Kapil Dev
2007    3   1-0   Rahul Dravid

Mohammad Azharuddin is the most successful Indian captain at home soil with 13 wins and just 4 losses, but his overseas record is pretty ordinary with just one win out of 27 games. When it comes to lead the side away from the comforts of the home, Sourav Ganguly towers over the rest with 11 wins out of 28 games. Ganguly also holds the distinction of winning most series for India on foreign soil, though Rahul Dravid is not very far behind. In fact Ganguly's series tally includes the series against Pakistan in 2003-04, in which Rahul Dravid captained the side in first two Tests winning one and losing one. Ganguly then returned in the third Test to take the series.

Most series wins for Indian captains on foreign soil

Sourav Ganguly      4
R Dravid            3
Ajit Wadekar        2
Nawab of Pataudi,jr 1
Kapil Dev           1
M Azharuddin        1

Most Test wins for Indian captains on foreign soil 

Captain             Mts Won Lost Drawn Won%
Sourav Ganguly       28  11  10   7   39.28
Rahul Dravid         17   5   4   8   29.41
Nawab of Pataudi,jr  13   3  10   0   23.07
Bishan Singh Bedi    14   3   8   3   21.42
Ajit Wadekar         11   2   3   6   18.18
Kapil Dev            14   2   3   9   14.28
Sunil Gavaskar       18   2   6  10   11.11
M Azharuddin         27   1  10  16    3.70

Rahul Dravid has been the most prolific scorer in the matches won by India overseas, but Tendulkar has the highest average and also the most hundreds to his name.

Most successful batsmen in overseas Test wins
(Min. Qualification: 500 runs)
Player          Mts Runs   Avg  100s 50s
R Dravid        16  1729  86.45   5  7
SR Tendulkar    13  1359  97.07   6  2
SC Ganguly      14   972  64.80   2  8
VVS Laxman      13   873  51.35   2  5
SM Gavaskar      9   756  50.40   3  3
V Sehwag        10   577  44.38   1  0
GR Viswanath     6   533  53.30   2  3

Anil Kumble has taken most wickets in overseas victories, but Erapally Prasanna has the best average and then there is Irfan Pathan with 6-fivers and two 10-wicket match hauls !

Most successful bowlers in overseas Test wins
(Min.Qualification: 25 wickets)
Bowler           Mts Wkts  Avg     SR    5WI 10WM
A Kumble         13   71  21.42  42.14   4   0
Zaheer Khan      13   57  23.46  43.19   2   0
IK Pathan         7   49  16.76  30.39   6   2
BS Chandrasekhar  5   42  17.14  38.38   5   1
EAS Prasanna      7   42  16.50  48.86   3   1
BS Bedi           8   32  25.91  64.81   0   0
Harbhajan Singh   9   26  31.42  67.15   1   0