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Rediff.com  » Cricket » Indian spinners' love affair with the Kingston pitch

Indian spinners' love affair with the Kingston pitch

July 31, 2016 14:38 IST
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R Ashwin

IMAGE: Ravichandran Ashwin of India celebrates Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin bagged his 18th five-wicket haul as India dominated the first day of the second test against West Indies in Jamaica on Saturday.

Ashwin picked 5-52 as India bowled out West Indies for 196 at SabinaPark in Kingston.

In reply, India were 126 for one at close of play, trailing by only 70 runs, with Lokesh Rahul on 75 and Cheteshwar Pujara on 18.

Statistical highlights from the opening day’s play of the second cricket Test between India and the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, on Saturday.

# West Indies scored 196 off 52.3 overs -- the least number of overs faced in a completed innings by them on winning the toss and batting first. Previously they had batted 72.5 overs twice -- while scoring 214 at Port of Spain in 1971 and 228 at Chennai in 1979.

# West Indies' above score is their third lowest first innings total at SabinaPark, Kingston -- the first two being 139 in 1954 and 164 in 1990 -- both vs England. West Indies had lost both the Tests.

# Kraigg Brathwaite, in three Test innings at SabinaPark, Kingston, could not get going, scoring 4 & 0 vs Australia in June 2015 & 1 vs India on July 30 -- his tally being five runs in three innings at an average of 1.66.

# Darren Bravo has gone without a fifty vs India in eight innings in Test cricket. Prior to that he had posted back-to-back centuries -- 136 at Kolkata and 166 at Mumbai -- both in November 2011.

# Bravo has been a mediocre performer in Tests at home since the Gros Islet Test vs Bangladesh in September 2014, aggregating 360 in fifteen innings, including two fifties, at an average of 24.00, with a highest of 82 vs England at Bridgetown in May 2015.

# Ravichandran Ashwin has become the seventh Indian bowler to produce a five-wicket haul at SabinaPark, Kingston in Tests. Harbhajan Singh remains the only Indian bowler to produce two five-wicket hauls at this venue -- in 2002 and 2006.

# Anil Kumble (6/78 in 2006) and Kapil Dev (6/84) in 1989 are the only two Indian bowlers to bag six wickets in an innings at SabinaPark.

# Lokesh Rahul's unbeaten 75 is the third highest by an Indian opener, playing in his first innings vs West Indies in West Indies, next only to the 96 by Ajay Jadeja at St.John's in 1996-97 and Shikhar Dhawan's 84 at North Sound in 2016.

# Rahul's aforesaid innings is his third highest in Tests behind the 110 vs Australia at Sydney in January 2015 and 108 vs Sri Lanka at Colombo (PSS) in August 2015.

# Since posting 72, 159, 61 and 109 by Wasim Jaffer and Virender Sehwag for the first wicket vs West Indies in the Caribbean in 2006, the 87-run stand between Rahul and Dhawan is the first fifty-plus stand for India in ten innings against them in the West Indies.

# The previous highest opening partnership in nine innings for India in the Caribbean was 26 by Abhinav Mukund and Murali Vijay at Bridgetown in 2011.

# The aforesaid partnership (87) is the sixth highest opening stand for India in the Caribbean -- the highest being 159 between Wasim Jaffer and Virender Sehwag at Gros Islet in June 2006. The Jaffer-Sehwag opening pair is the only one for India to be associated in two century stands for the first wicket in the Caribbean.

# Ravichandran Ashwin's tally of 18 five-wicket hauls in 34 Tests is the third highest by a bowler after so many Tests. England's Sydney Barnes had produced 24 instances in his 27-Test career and Waqar Younis had 19 such instances.

# Of the 13 instances of five-wicket hauls by spinners at Kingston, eight have been produced by the Indian bowlers – the most for a team.

# The last time an Indian spinner produced two five-wicket hauls in a Test series outside the subcontinent was 2002 -- Harbhajan Singh in the Caribbean in 2006.

# Just four Indian spinners have produced three five-wicket hauls in a Test series outside the subcontinent -- Subhash Gupte, Bishan Singh Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Anil Kumble.

# Miguel Cummins's unbeaten 24 is the fourth highest by a West Indian number ten batsman on Test debut -- the highest is 45 by Denis Atkinson at Feroz Shah Kotla in November 1948. David Allan had scored 40 not out vs India at Bridgetown in March 1962 and Curtly Ambrose 25 not out vs Pakistan at Georgetown in April 1988.

# Marlon Samuels has been dismissed by Ravichandran Ashwin six times in seven Tests. Only Muttiah Muralitharan has dismissed him more times than Ashwin -- 7 dismissals in seven Tests.

# Jermaine Blackwood's 62 off 62 balls had strike rate of 100.00 -- the fourth West Indian to have registered strike rate of 100.00 or more in an innings of fifty or more vs India, joining Vivian Richards (169.44 - 61 off 36 balls -- at Kingston in 1983), Clive Lloyd (109.39 - 163 off 149 balls --

at Bangalore in 1974) and Gus Logie (108.06 - 67 off 62 balls -- at Chennai in 1988).

# Blackwood's first fifty vs India is his seventh in Tests. As compared to his home average of 41.78, Blackwood is averaging 21.30 in overseas Tests.

# West Indies lost three wickets for seven runs – the last and the only occasion when West Indies lost their first three wickets for less than seven runs against India at Port of Spain in March 1983 - both the openers, Gordon Greenidge 0, Desmond Haynes 0 and Vivian Richards 1. At the fall of the third wicket, they had put on just one run on the scoreboard.

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