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

Captains not enforcing the follow-on despite big leads

Lead For         Opponent     Venue       Season   Result 
563  England     West Indies  Kingston    1929-30  Drawn
445  Australia   England      Brisbane    2006-07  Won
399  England     Australia    Brisbane    1928-29  Won
380  Australia   England      The Oval    1934     Won
340  Australia   West Indies  Sydney      1968-69  Won
326  West Indies England      Georgetown  1929-30  Won
324  Australia   New Zealand  Adelaide    2004-05  Won
319  India       England      The Oval    2007     Match in progress

Following are the instances when India chose NOT to enforce follow-on:

Lead  Opponent     Venue      Season    Result           Captain
319   England      The Oval   2007    Match in progress  R Dravid
275   New Zealand  Ahmedabad  1999-00 Drawn              SR Tendulkar
231   Australia    Sydney     2003-04 Drawn              SC Ganguly

Should Dravid enforce the follow-on

What will Rahul Dravid do? Will he enforce follow-on in the Oval Test or not?

Traditionally enforcing the follow-on is believed to be an aggressive tactics and those captains, who prefer not to enforce it, are made out to be of defensive or negative mindset.

However statistics portray a different picture altogether. There is hardly any evidence that enforcing the follow-on actually works. The following table gives summary of instances of fielding captains enforcing the follow-on vis-à-vis instances of follow-on not being enforced (even when the fielding captain was entitled to do so)

In all Test matches
                                   Mts   Won  Lost Drawn   Won%
Sides enforcing the follow-on      271   205   3     63   75.64
Sides not enforcing the follow-on   41    32   1      8   78.04

In fact in the last three years, teams not enforcing the follow-on have won 83% of the time, but teams enforcing it have won only 67% ! This is amazing considering that teams following on tend to be in worse positions than when the follow-on is not enforced.

Since January 2004
                                   Mts   Won  Lost Drawn   Won%
Sides enforcing the follow-on       15    10   0     5    66.66
Sides not enforcing the follow-on   12    10   0     2    83.33

Some cricket-pundits are of the opinion that if an opportunity arises, the fielding captain should always enforce the follow-on, dismiss the opponent second time and win the match comfortably rather than opting to bat again and add a few more runs to lead he has managed.

However, it is not as straight and simple as it is always thought out to be. There are other factors too, which affect the state of the game. Bowlers may not be inclined to go through that hard toil again particularly after a tiring day in the field.

After the 2000-01 Calcutta Test - when India made a remarkable comeback and won the Test after being forced to follow-on - captains have become vary of enforcing the follow-on. Australia has implemented a rather peculiar strategy to deal with such situations. It will still enforce the follow-on if it does not have enough time in the match. But if it has sufficient time, Australia more often than not bats again, makes runs at a blazing pace and invariably gives opposition a fourth innings target of more than 400, which is almost impossible for any side to get

This strategy has worked wonders for Australia. It has a cent-percent winning record in six occasions, when it did not enforce the follow-on. On eight occasions, Australia has enforced the follow-on, it has won seven and drawn one.

However India should apply the strategy adopted by Australia with a pinch of salt. What has been very successful for Australia, may not be as productive for India. Dravid should also take into consideration the fact that on two occasions when Indian captains did not enforce the follow-on - v New Zealand at Ahmedabad in 1999-00 and v Australia at Sydney in 2003-04 - India could not deliver a knock-out punch in wrapping up the opposition innings on the fifth day.

                                        Mts  Won Lost Drawn  Won %
India while enforcing the follow-on     26   16    0    10  61.53
India while not enforcing the follow-on  2    0    0     2   -

So Dravid will have to make a decision taking into consideration all these factors. One more factor that needs his attention is that despite losing eight wickets England batsmen still managed to score 302 runs on day three. Although England is still 338 runs behind, Dravid would not like to be in a position when he has to chase a small target with no time left in the match as rain is likely on the fifth day.

A rather forgettable match for Matt Prior

It was not just English bowlers who suffered during Indian onslaught, wicket-keeper Matt Prior had a nightmarish match also.On the opening day of the Test, he conceded 21 byes, which is a record for the first day of a Test match.Prior conceded 12 more on day two and got his name entered in the list of worst wicket-keeping performances.
He is now at the joint second place in this list. Interestingly all the first four places are held by England keepers. It may be noted here that the Frank Woolley (at the top of the list) was not the specialist wicket-keeper. He had to stand in when the regular keeper (Les Ames) was injured. So Prior's performance is now the worst ever for a specialist wicket-keeper.

Byes Keeper           Opposition (Score) Venue      Season
37  FE Woolley (Eng)  Australia (327)    The Oval   1934
33  JT Murray (Eng)   India (390)        Mumbai BS  1961-62
33  JM Parks (Eng)    West Indies (391)  Kingston   1967-68
33  MJ Prior (Eng)    India (664)        The Oval   2007
31  WL Cornford (Eng) New Zealand (387)  Auckland   1929-30
31  ATW Grout (Aus)   Pakistan (366)     Lahore     1959-60
30  M Bisset (SA)     England (417)      Cape Town  1909-10
30  W Carkeek (Aus)   South Africa (329) Nottingham 1912
30  EAC Hunte (WI)    England (327)      Georgetown 1929-30
30  TG Evans (Eng)    New Zealand (189)  Wellington 1950-51

Note: Prior has conceded 70 byes in the series so far.
The Test record of most byes in a three Test series is 73 by Jack Blackham which was set in 1893.

All eleven reaching double figures & most 50-stands

A look at the scorecard of the Oval Test reveals an interesting statistics. All eleven Indian batsmen moved into double figures. This provided the 11th such instance in Test cricket and fourth for India. The details:

County      Score   Opponent    Venue        Season  Lowest
England      475    Australia   Melbourne    1894-95  11
South Africa 385    England     Johannesburg 2005-06  10
England      636    Australia   Sydney       1928-29  11
South Africa 358    Australia   Melbourne    1931-32  10*
Australia    575-8d India       Melbourne    1947-48  11
India        397    Pakistan    Calcutta     1952-53  11
India        359    New Zealand Dunedin      1967-68  12
India        524-9d New Zealand Kanpur       1976-77  10*
Australia    471    Sri Lanka   Colombo SSC  1992-93  10*
England      470    West Indies The Oval     2004     10
India        664    England     The Oval     2007     11

Another interesting fact was that first 8 Indian batsmen - from Karthik to Kumble - made a contribution of at least 25 runs. This is only the second such happening in Test chronicles. There is only one better performance and that came against India!

Most batsmen from top of the order scoring at least 25 runs in an innings
No. For       Total   Opponent     Venue         Season
9 West Indies 644-8   India        Delhi         1958-59
8 India       559-7   England      The Oval      2007
7 Australia   729-6   England      Lord's        1930
7 Australia   526-7   South Africa Cape Town     1949-50
7 England     558     Australia    Melbourne     1965-66
7 Australia   481     England      Perth         1974-75
7 Pakistan    624     Australia    Adelaide      1983-84
7 India       521-6   West Indies  St.John's     2006

Actually each of first 8 Indian batsmen made at least 35 runs, which makes it the first such instance in Test cricket. The previous record was of 7 batsmen doing so on three occasions


There were 8 partnerships of 50 and more in the Indian innings - 62 for the first, 127 for the second, 77 for the fourth, 76 for the fifth, 63 for the sixth, 91 for the seventh, 62 for the eighth and 73 for the tenth wicket. The only failures were third-wicket partnership (between Karthik and Tendulkar) that produced 10 runs and ninth wicket partnership (between Kumble and RP Singh) that produced 21 runs.

This provides the first instance in Test annals of a side with eight fifty-plus partnerships in the same innings. No side had even managed seven fifty-partnerships before.

India's highest totals in Test cricket

India's first innings total of 664 in the Oval Test is their fourth highest total in Test cricket against all opponents. The details:

Total  Opposition   Venue      Season    Result
705-7d Australia    Sydney     2003-04   Drawn
676-7  Sri Lanka    Kanpur     1986-87   Drawn
675-5d Pakistan     Multan     2003-04   Won
664    England      The Oval   2007      Match in Progress
657-7d Australia    Calcutta   2000-01   Won
644-7d West Indies  Kanpur     1978-79   Drawn
633-5d Australia    Calcutta   1997-98   Won
628-8d England      Leeds      2002      Won
610-3d Bangladesh   Dhaka      2007      Won
609-6d Zimbabwe     Nagpur     2000-01   Drawn
606-9d England      The Oval   1990      Drawn
603    Pakistan     Faisalabad 2005-06   Drawn
600-4d Australia    Sydney     1985-86   Drawn
600    Pakistan     Rawalpindi 2003-04   Won

The Total is also the highest for India in England. The previous highest was achieved in 2002 at Leeds as listed below. All the three wins were by innings margin.

Total  Venue       Season    Result
664    The Oval    2007    Match in progress
628-8d Leeds       2002    Won
606-9d The Oval    1990    Drawn
591    Mumbai      1992-93 Won
560-6d Chennai     1992-93 Won

Kumble's feats

Anil Kumble today established a new world record of a batsman scoring his maiden Test hundred after playing most number of Tests. Oval Test is Kumble's 118th Test and he surpassed Sri Lanka's Chaminda Vaas' record who was playing his 97th Test when he scored his maiden 100.

The following table lists top-5 batsmen taking most Tests to score their maiden Test hundred:

Test#    Batsman         For         Span
118th    A Kumble        Ind    1990-2007
97th     WPUJC Vaas      SL     1994-2006
71st     JN Gillespie    Aus    1996-2006
56th     HH Streak       Zim    1993-2003
51st     SM Pollock      SA     1995-2000

At 36 years 297 days Anil Kumble has become the oldest Indian to score a maiden Test century. The previous record was held by Vijay Hazare.The following table lists the oldest Indians at the time of scoring a maiden Test century:

Age         Batsman            Opponent      Venue      Season
36 Y 297 D  A Kumble (110*)    England       The Oval   2007
32 Y 321 D  VS Hazare (116)    Australia     Adelaide   1947-48
31 Y 322 D  RG Nadkarni (122*) England       Kanpur     1963-64
31 Y 241 D  M Prabhakar (120)  West Indies   Mohali     1994-95
30 Y 265 D  MH Mankad (116)    Australia     Melbourne  1947-48

Kumble is the sixth Indian (on seventh occasion) to score a Test century while batting at number eight.Kapil Dev has done so twice. Kumble's score is now the third highest by an Indian at this position. Interestingly out of seven centuries scored by Indians at number 8, five have come against England!

Highest scores by Indians at number 8
Score Batsman     Opponent     Venue    Season
116   Kapil Dev   England      Kanpur    1981-82
115*  A Ratra     West Indies  St.John's 2001-02
110*  A Kumble    England      The Oval  2007
110   Kapil Dev   England      The Oval  1990
110   DH Shodhan  Pakistan     Calcutta  1952-53
109*  AB Agarkar  England      Lord's    2002
102   SMH Kirmani England      Mumbai    1984-85

Kumble now also holds the record for having the most wickets taken by a test centurion beating Kapil Dev's record.

Closest draws in Test cricket

The rain gods saved India from a certain defeat at Lord's. This provided the 16th instance in Test cricket history of a side hanging onto a draw with 9 wickets down in the fourth innings of a Test. This was the second such instance for India. Interestingly first ever such instance also belonged to India - vs England at Manchester in 1946.Twice India have been at the receiving end - both times against West Indies.The following table lists the all such instances:

Country    Target Total Opponents    Venue          Season
India        278  152-9 England      Manchester     1946
Australia    460  273-9 West Indies  Adelaide       1960-61
England      234  228-9 West Indies  Lord's         1963
England      308  206-9 West Indies  Georgetown     1967-68
Australia    360  339-9 West Indies  Adelaide       1968-69
West Indies  306  251-9 Pakistan     Bridgetown     1976-77
West Indies  369  258-9 Australia    Kingston       1977-78
West Indies  335  197-9 India        Calcutta       1978-79
Australia    247  230-9 New Zealand  Melbourne      1987-88
Pakistan     372  341-9 West Indies  Port-of-Spain  1987-88
New Zealand  288  223-9 Australia    Hobart         1997-98
West Indies  373  207-9 Zimbabwe     Harare         2003-04
England      323  210-9 Sri Lanka    Galle          2003-04
Australia    423  371-9 England      Manchester     2005
West Indies  392  298-9 India        St.John's      2005-06
India        380  282-9 England      Lord's         2007

MOST LBW DISMISSALS IN ENGLAND

There were as many as 14 LBW dismissals in the Lord's Test- seven for both sides. This equals the existing record of most such dismissals in a Test in England. The details:

LBW     Teams      Venue     Season
14   Eng v WI     The Oval    2000
14   Eng v Ind    Lord’s      2007
12   Eng v WI     Lord’s      1984
11   Eng v Aus    Lord’s      1975
11   Eng v NZ     Lord’s      1994
11   Eng v NZ     Nottingham  2004

A world record for Kumble

When he had Andrew Strauss snapped by Rahul Dravid as his 150th catch on the opening day of Lord’s Test, Anil Kumble achieved a world record of different type on his name.

This was the tenth time Kumble was dismissing a batsman in his nineties - most by any bowler in Test annals. He was previously at level with former teammate Kapil Dev with nine such instances. The accompanying table has the details:

90s Bowler        For    Mts    Wkts
10 A Kumble       Ind    116    553*
9  Kapil Dev      Ind    131    434
6  MD Marshall    WI      81    376
6  M Muralitharan SL     113    700
5  LR Gibbs       WI      79    309
5  DL Underwood   Eng     86    297
5  RJ Hadlee      NZ      86    431
5  IT Botham      Eng    102    383
5  B Yardley      Aus     33    126
5  SR Waugh       Aus    168     92
5  Mushtaq Ahmed  Pak     52    185
5  AA Donald      SA      72    330
5  WPUJC Vaas     SL      98    319
5  AF Giles       Eng     54    143
5  MJ Hoggard     Eng     64    240
5  Danish Kaneria Pak     46    198
5  SJ Harmison    Eng     54    205

…..and following is the list of batsmen dismissed in 90s by Kumble:

Batsman               Score Venue          Season   How out
ME Trescothick (Eng)   99   Ahmedabad      2001-02  Caught
Mohammad Yousuf (Pak)  97   Karachi        2005-06  LBW
AG Prince (SA)         97   Johannesburg   2006-07  Bowled
AJ Strauss (Eng)       96   Lord's         2007     Caught
JH Kallis (SA)         95   Bangalore      1999-00  Caught
GC Smith (SA)          94   Cape Town      2006-07  Caught
PA de Silva (SL)       93   Colombo SSC    1993-94  Caught
CD McMillan (NZ)       92   Hamilton       1998-99  Caught
JN Rhodes (SA)         91   Johannesburg   1992-93  LBW
Abdul Razzaq (Pak)     90   Karachi        2005-06  Caught

A day of numerous records for Sangakkara

On the third day of Kandy Test between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Kumar Sangakkara scored an unbeaten 222 - his second double century in successive innings.Sangakkara had also made an unbeaten 200 in Sri Lanka's only innings in second Test at P.Sarvanamuttu Stadium in Colombo. With this Sangakkara became only the fourth batsman in Test cricket history to score double centuries in successive innings after England's Wally Hammond, Australia's Don Bradman and India's Vinod Kambli. Hammond had done so on two occasions. The following table has the details:

Double centuries in successive innings
Batsman         Score Opponent    Venue         Season
WR Hammond (Eng) 251  Australia   Sydney        1928-29
                 200  Australia   Melbourne     1928-29
WR Hammond (Eng) 227  New Zealand Christchurch  1932-33
                 336* New Zealand Auckland      1932-33
DG Bradman (Aus) 304  England     Leeds         1934
                 244  England     The Oval      1934
VG Kambli (Ind)  224  England     Mumbai WS     1992-93
                 227  Zimbabwe    Delhi         1992-93
KC S'kara (SL)   200* Bangladesh  Colombo PSS   2007
                 222* Bangladesh  Kandy         2007

This was sixth double century of Sangakkara's career, which puts him at top in level with Marvan Atapattu among Sri Lankans. Only Bradman, Lara and Hammond have scored more double centuries than Sangakkara. Sangakkara's frequency of scoring double centuries is second best after Don Bradman (who else!) among all batsmen who have scored at least five double centuries in a career.

Most double centuries in a career
200s  Batsman           Inns Inns/200
12 DG Bradman (Aus)      80    6.66
9  BC Lara (WI)         232   25.78
7  WR Hammond (Eng)     140   20.00
6  KC Sangakkara (SL)   110   18.33
6  MS Atapattu (SL)     152   25.33
6  Javed Miandad (Pak)  189   31.50
5  R Dravid (Ind)       185   37.00

Sangakkara's 222 runs in third day's play are the most scored by a Sri Lankan batsman in a single day's play. The previous record was held by Aravinda de Silva.

Most runs in one day by a Sri Lankan batsman

                                                               Day
222 (0-222*) KC Sangakkara v Bangladesh  Kandy         2007    3rd
206 (0-206)  PA de Silva   v Bangladesh  Colombo PSS   2002-03 2nd
203 (0*-203*) PA de Silva  v New Zealand Wellington    1990-91 2nd

Sri Lanka made 470 runs for the loss of four wickets in third day's play. This is the sixth best performance by a side in a day's play. The world record is also held by Sri Lanka. No points for guessing who the opposition was.

Most runs in one day - by one team
509-9 SL  32-0 to 541-9  Bangladesh    Colombo PSS 2002-03 2nd
503-2 Eng 28-0 to 531-2d South Africa  Lord's      1924    2nd
494-6 Aus 494-6          South Africa  Sydney      1910-11 1st
475-2 Aus 475-2          England       The Oval    1934    1st
471-8 Eng 471-8d         India         The Oval    1936    1st
470-4 SL  30-0 to 500-4  Bangladesh    Kandy       2007    3rd

Fastest fifties in Test cricket

Fighting a lost battle in the second Test at Mirpur Mohammad Ashraful decided that enough was enough and put Indian bowling attack to sword.Almost all bowlers were hit to all corners of the ground in the highly entertaining innings of 67 which lasted for only 46 minutes. Ashraful faced 41 balls in all and hit 12 fours and two sixes. During the course of his innings Ashraful raced to his fifty in just 27 minutes and off 26 balls.

Ashraful's fifty is now the fastest ever in Test cricket history in terms of minutes and second (joint) fastest in terms of balls. The accompanying tables have the details.
Fastest Test fifties (by minutes)

Mins  Batsman                Countries    Venue      Season  
27   Mohammad Ashraful (67)  Ban v Ind   Mirpur      2007
28   JT Brown (140)          Eng v Aus   Melbourne   1894-95
29   SA Durani (61*)         Ind v Eng   Kanpur      1963-64
30   EAV Williams (72)       WI  v Eng   Bridgetown  1947-48
30   BR Taylor (124)         NZ  v WI    Auckland    1968-69

Fastest Test fifties (by balls)

Balls  Batsman  Countries  Venue  Season
24   JH Kallis (54)          SA  v Zim   Cape Town   2004-05
26   Shahid Afridi (58)      Pak v Ind   Bangalore   2004-05
26   Mohammad Ashraful (67)  Ban v Ind   Mirpur      2007
27   Mohammad Yousuf (50)    Pak v SA    Cape Town   2002-03

Notes:
- Australia's VT Trumper is shown at some places with a time of 22 minutes for his fifty during his innings of 63 against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1902-03. However Trumper took no less than 45 minutes for his fifty.

- Some sources show England's IT Botham with a 26-ball fifty against India at Delhi in 1981-82. Botham actually took 28 balls to do so.

Two world records for Dhoni

Wicketkeeper batsman MS Dhoni got himself a couple of world records by scoring an unbeaten 139 in the third and final Afro-Asia Cup match on Sunday.

Coming into bat with Asia XI tottering at 72 for five, Dhoni added 218 runs (off just 178 balls) with skipper Mahela Jayawardene for the sixth wicket establishing a new partnership record for this wicket in one-day internationals.

The previous record of 165 runs was set by Australia's Brad Haddin and Mike Hussey against West Indies at Kuala Lumpur in September 2006 and also between New Zealand's Brian McCullum and Craig McMillan against Australia at Hamilton in February 2007.

Dhoni then went on to surpass the record of scoring the highest individual innings by a number seven batsman in one-day internationals. Interestingly the previous record was set just four days ago by Shaun Pollock in the first match of this series.

Pollock had broken the record of India's Mohammad Kaif. Another Indian has got it back, though while doing so he was representing Asia XI and not Team India.

Highest innings by number 7 batsman in ODIs

Runs      Batsman           SR   Opponent    Venue            Date 
139* MS Dhoni (Asia XI)  143.29 Africa XI    Chennai       10 Jun 2007
130  SM Pollock (Afr XI) 118.18 Asia XI      Bangalore     06 Jun 2007
111* M Kaif (Ind)         99.10 Zimbabwe     Colombo (RPS) 14 Sep 2002
100* JM Kemp (SA)        112.35 India        Cape Town     26 Nov 2006
100  HP T'ratne (SL)      94.33 West Indies  Sharjah       16 Oct 1995
94*  SS Dighe (Ind)       97.91 West Indies  Harare        07 Jul 2001
89   Abdul Razzaq (Pak)  222.50 New Zealand  Wellington    17 Jan 2004
88*  MEK Hussey (Aus)    157.14 New Zealand  Christchurch  10 Dec 2005
87*  M Kaif (Ind)        116.00 England      Lord's        13 Jul 2002
87   Kapil Dev (Ind)     135.93 West Indies  Nagpur        08 Dec 1987
86*  BB McCullum (NZ)     94.50 Australia    Hamilton      20 Feb 2007
86   Wasim Akram (Pak)   113.15 Australia    Melbourne     23 Feb 1990
86   JR Murray (WI)      111.68 England      The Oval      26 May 1995
85   SB Styris (NZ)      104.93 West Indies  Gros Islet    08 Jun 2002

Run-out on 98 or 99

Sourav Ganguly made a grand comeback into Indian ODI side in the Nagpur one-dayer against West Indies. Playing his first game in more than 16 months Ganguly was all set to score a sparkling century when Dwayne Smith's direct hit found him short of his crease at non-striker end.

Ganguly thus joined the select band of cricketers who have suffered the ignominy of getting run-out on 98 or 99. It is obvious that most of the players don't take sharp singles when so close to the three-figures mark. Surprisingly barring Ganguly and Morgan (about whom not much is known), all others are known to be excellent runner in between the wickets. Morgan was making his ODI debut and created a scene on the ground after getting run-out for which he was severely reprimanded later.

Runs Batsman  Teams   Venue Season
99 ST Jayasuriya SL v Eng  Adelaide  2002-03
99 GC Smith      SA v SL   Centurion 2002-03
99 AC Gilchrist  Aus v SL  Centurion 2002-03
99 EJG Morgan    Ire v Sco Ayr       2006
98 RS Mahanama   SL v Ind  Mumbai    1986-87
98 SC Ganguly    Ind v WI  Nagpur    2006-07