Yet another career-best against India

Younis Khan yesterday added his name to the ever-increasing list of batsmen who have reserved their best performance for India. Younis is the 34th batsman to score a double century against India.Of these as many as 25 also achieved their career-best score against India. A detailed look into the career statistics of these players reveals some interesting facts. West Indian Faoud Bacchus made 250 at Kanpur in 1978-79. It was the only hundred of his Test career and his highest score in first class cricket also. Surprised, then just have a look at England's David Lloyd's case. Lloyd made an unbeaten 214 in the Birmingham Test in 1974 series. In all his Test career, he did not have another score of 50 or more.

New Zealand's Graeme Dowling, who scored a match winning 239 at Christchurch in 1967-68- in a match where second highest score from either side was a paltry 74, had three centuries in his Test career. Interestingly all three came against India only. Another Kiwi batsman Bert Sutcliffe, who made unbeaten 230 at Delhi in 1955-56, had his three highest scores in Test cricket made against India. But Pakistan's Mudassar Nazar had even better record. Mudassar's first five highest scores all came against India.

Among the contemporary batsmen, Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya and Mahela Jayawerdene, Australia's Ricky Ponting and now Pakistan's Younis Khan have made their highest score against India.

If we remove the minimum qualification of a double century, then as many as four players of this Pakistan side playing at Bangalore - Shahid Afridi,Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Sami and Younis Khan - have made their highest Test score against India.

Highest individual score for a visiting batsman on Indian soil

Younis Khan’s epic innings of 267 is now the highest individual innings on Indian soil by a visiting batsman. Younis bettered West Indian Rohan Kanhai’s 46 years old record. Incidentally Younis’ performance is the second best among all individual performances on Indian soil – for or against India after VVS Laxman’s 281 at Calcutta in 2000-01.

The following table lists the highest individual scores on Indian soil by visiting batsmen:

Runs   Batsman    For    Venue       Season
267  Younis Khan  Pak   Bangalore    2004-05
256  RB Kanhai    WI    Calcutta     1958-59
250  SFAF Bacchus WI    Kanpur       1978-79
242* CH Lloyd     WI    Bombay (WS)  1974-75
232* A Flower     Zim   Nagpur       2000-01
230* B Sutcliffe  NZ    Delhi        1955-56
210  DM Jones     Aus   Madras (MAC) 1986-87
207  MW Gatting   Eng   Madras (MAC) 1984-85
203  ML Hayden    Aus   Madras (MAC) 2000-01
201  G Fowler     Eng   Madras (MAC) 1984-85

Kumble's awesome performance in WON matches

Kumble played important part in Indian victory at Kolkata Test by picking up seven wickets in the second innings and ten wickets in the match. Kumble has now appeared in 31 WON matches for India. His tally is the highest for a specialist bowler -well ahead of Kapil Dev (24), Harbhajan Singh (18),Bishan Singh Bedi (17) and Javagal Srinath (17).In fact only Sachin Tendulkar has made appearance in more WON matches for India (38) than Kumble among all players.

Kumble's performance in these 31 matches has been awesome. He has taken 219 wickets at an average of 18.09 with 16 five-fors and 4 ten-wicket match hauls. Harbhajan Singh is distant second with 102 wickets in 18 WON matches.

Bowler          Tests Wkts   Ave. 5WI 10WM   SR    W/T
A Kumble         31   219  18.09  16   4   45.24  7.06
Harbhajan Singh  18   102  20.04   9   2   49.44  5.67
BS Chandrasekhar 14    98  19.28   8   1   45.42  7.00
BS Bedi          17    97  17.66   6   -   54.03  5.71
Kapil Dev        24    90  18.30   3   1   45.28  3.75
EAS Prasanna     15    81  17.62   5   1   50.41  5.40
J Srinath        17    68  20.31   2   -   48.72  4.00
SLV Raju         12    58  21.22   4   1   58.43  4.83

Tendulkar completes 10,000 runs in Test cricket

Sachin Tendulkar completed 10,000 runs in Test cricket when his score reached 27 on the opening day of Kolkata Test. Tendulkar became the second Indian and only the fifth batsman in Test history to do so. He, however, is the only one to aggregate 10,000 runs both in ODIs and Tests.

Tendulkar needed 195 innings to complete his 10,000 runs, which makes him the joint fastest along with West Indies’ Brian Lara. At 31 years 326 days Tendulkar is easily the youngest of the lot.

Click here for the complete statistical summary of Tendulkar's career http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2005/mar/16ten.htm

Dravid's amazing feat

Rahul Dravid achieved a landmark on the third day of Mohali Test, which no body seems to have taken notice of. The 103 runs partnership for the second wicket between Sehwag and Dravid was the 50th century partnership involving Dravid. He became only the third Indian and seventh batsman overall to accomplish this feat. Dravid’s frequency of 1.74 Tests for a century partnership at an average is easily the best for the batsmen appearing in the following list. It may be noted that fellow teammate Sachin Tendulkar has now participated in 57 century partnerships and he will soon overhaul Sunil Gavaskar’s Indian record.

100 Stands  Batsman For Tests
64 SR Waugh Aus 168
63 AR Border Aus 156
58 SM Gavaskar Ind 125
57 SR Tendulkar Ind 121
54 BC Lara         WI 112
50 Javed Miandad Pak 124
50 R Dravid Ind 87