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Rediff.com  » Cricket » Which Indian has the best average in the 4th innings?

Which Indian has the best average in the 4th innings?

By Rajneesh Gupta
Last updated on: November 14, 2016 12:39 IST
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Rajneesh Gupta presents all the numbers from the first Test in Rajkot.

The swashbuckler was a masterclass in defence

IMAGE: It may be difficult to believe, but Virat Kohli has the highest batting average in the fourth innings of Tests among all Indian batsmen who have aggregated 500 or more runs. Photographs: BCCI

 

The draw in the Rajkot Test ended India's winning streak at home.

Before the first Test against England, India had won 12 consecutive Tests (excluding the rain-marred Bangalore Test against South Africa).

The last Test to be drawn in India was the Nagpur Test in December 2012, also against England.

Rajkot's Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium became the 23rd Indian ground and 110th ground in the world to host a Test.

Indore's Holkar Cricket Stadium became the 22nd Indian Test ground when it hosted the Test against New Zealand.

When he came out for the toss with Virat Kohli, it was a special occasion for Alastair Cook.

It was the 55th time Cook was leading England -- a record. He went ahead of Michael Atherton's tally of 54 Tests as England's captain.

Most Tests as England's captain

 MatchesWonLostDrawnWin%
Alastair Cook 55 24 18 13 43.64
Michael Atherton 54 13 21 20 24.07
Michael Vaughan 51 26 11 14 50.98
Andrew Strauss 50 24 11 15 48.00
Nasser Hussain 45 17 15 13 37.78
Peter May 41 20 10 11 48.78
Graham Gooch 34 10 12 12 29.41
David Gower 32 5 18 9 15.63
Mike Brearley 31 18 4 9 58.06
Ray Illingworth 31 12 5 14 38.71
Ted Dexter 30 9 7 14 30.00

When Cookie won the toss, it was after eight consecutive Tests that a visiting captain had won the toss in India.

The sequence extends back to the second Test versus the West Indies, all four Tests against South Africa and all three against New Zealand.

This was the first time Virat Kohli had lost a toss at home.

It was also a milestone Test for Stuart Broad. It was the English fast bowler's 100th Test, only the 14th Englishman to play 100 Tests.

For the first time in its Test history, England had four players of Asian origin in the playing eleven: Opener Haseeb Hameed, all-rounder Moeen Ali, leg-spinner Adil Rashid and leftarm spinner Zafar Ansari.

Haseeb, who made his Test debut in Rajkot (his parents hail from Gujarat), became the 674th player to represent England in Test cricket.

At 19 years, 297 days Hameed is the fifth youngest Englishman to make his Test debut. He is also the youngest ever to open the innings for England.

Youngest to play Test cricket for England

AgePlayerOpponentVenueSeason
18 years, 149 days Brian Close New Zealand Manchester 1949
19 years, 32 days Jack Crawford South Africa Johannesburg 1905-1906
19 years, 83 days Dennis Compton New Zealand The Oval 1937
19 years, 269 days Ben Hollioake Australia Nottingham 1997
19 years, 297 days Haseeb Hameed India Rajkot 2016
19 years, 338 days Ian Peebles South Africa Johannesburg 1927-1928

England ended day one at 311/4, one of the best performances for a visiting side on the opening day of a first Test in India.

Best opening day of a series in India by visiting teams

(batting first)

TotalForVenueSeasonSeries Result
316/5 Australia Bangalore 2004-2005 Australia won 2-1
316/7 Australia Chennai 2012-2013 India won 4-0
312 Pakistan Mohali 2004-2005 Drawn 1-1
311/8 Sri Lanka Madras 1982-1983 India won 1-0
311/4 England Rajkot 2016-2017 Drawn
304/4 South Africa Chennai 2007-2008 Drawn 1-1
294/3 West Indies Delhi 1948-1049 West Indies won 1-0
291/2 South Africa Nagpur 2009-2010 Drawn 1-1
288/3 England Bombay, Brabourne Stadium 1961-1962 India won 2-0
280/4 Sri Lanka Mohali 1997-1998 Drawn 0-0

Joe Root's hundred on the opening day of the Test was the first for a visiting side in 13 Tests in India.

Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes also scored hundreds on the second day as England amassed 537 runs, its third highest total in India.

With Root, Moeen and Stokes scoring centuries in the England innings, this was the first instance since 2009 and only the 10th overall of three batsmen from the visiting side scoring centuries in the same innings.

Seven of the previous 9 instances ended in a draw and one in the historical tie.

Only once did the visiting side win the Test:

Most 100s in an innings versus India in India

100sTotalForVenueSeasonResult
4 631 West Indies Delhi 1948-1949 Drawn
4 630/6d New Zealand Mohali 2003-2004 Drawn
3 614/5d West Indies Calcutta 1958-1959 West Indies on by an innings and 336 runs
3 644/8d West Indies Delhi 1958-1959 Drawn
3 497/5 England Kanpur 1961-1962 Drawn
3 574/7d Australia Madras 1986-1987 Match tied
3 530/5d Wes Indies Calcutta 1987-1988 Drawn
3 497 West Indies Kolkata 2002-2003 Drawn
3 760/7d Sri Lanka Ahmedabad 2009-2010 Drawn
3 537 England Rajkot 2016 Drawn

IMAGE: The Rajkot Test was not a good one for Ravichandran Ashwin, the number one bowler in Test cricket.

Ravichandran Ashwin conceded 167 runs in 46 overs while picking up two wickets in the first innings -- one of his worst performances at home.

Four of his worst five performances at home have come against England. Take a look:

Ashwin's worst performances at home

RunsWicketsVersusVenueSeason
183 3 England Kolkata 2012
167 2 England Rajkot 2016
145 2 England Mumbai 2012
137 2 West Indies Kolkata 2012
111 1 England Ahmedabad 2012

Cheteshwar Pujara scored his 9th Test hundred, his 7th in India and his 3rd against England.

Pujara now holds a unique distinction of scoring a hundred in the first-ever Test played on his home ground, Rajkot. Only two other Indians hold this record.

Indians with a hundred in the first-ever Test on their home ground

BatsmanScoreVsGroundSeason
Rusi Modi 112 West Indies Bombay, Brabourne Stadium 1948-49
Eknath Solkar 102 West Indies Bombay, Wankhede Stadium 1975
Cheteshwar Pujara 124 England Rajkot 2016

Pujara added 209 runs with Murali Vijay for the second wicket -- India's second highest partnership for this wicket against England.

The highest remains the 314 run partnership between Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid at Mohali in 2008-2009.

Vijay and Pujara also completed 2,000 runs as a pair, becoming the 13th Indian pair to accomplish this feat.

Interestingly, they have the highest average among 13 Indian pairs.

Most prolific Indian pairs in Tests

(Minimum 2,000 runs added together)

PairInningsRunsBestAverage100-Stands
Murli Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara 33 2,128 370 64.48 6
Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly 71 4,173 281 61.36 12
Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid 58 3,383 410 60.41 10
Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammad Azharuddin 42 2,385 222 58.17 9
Sunil Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath 44 2,366 224 55.02 10
Gauram Gambhir, Rahul Dravid 47 2,530 314 55.00 7
Chetan Chauhan, Sunil Gavaskar 60 3,127 213 54.85 11
Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly 68 3,294 194* 53.12 10
Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag 87 4,412 233 52.52 11
Rahil Dravid, V V S Laxman 86 4,065 376 51.45 12
Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman 73 3,523 353 51.05 9
Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar 143 6,920 249 50.51 20
Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar 67 3,272 344* 50.33 10

IMAGE: England players appeal for Virat Kohli's wicket.

Virat Kohli, who looked set to play a long innings, got out in a bizarre way.

While trying to play an Adil Rashid delivery to mid-wicket, Kohli stepped on the leg-stump, thus becoming the 20th Indian to get out hit-wicket.

Mohinder Amarnath got out in this fashion three times.

Indian batsmen out hit-wicket in Tests versus England

PlayerScoreVenueSeasonBowler
Dilip Sardesai 28 Kanpur 1961-1962 Tony Lock
Madan Lal 7 Old Trafford 1974 Bob Willis
Ashok Mankad 43 Edgbaston 1974 Chris Old
Brijesh Patel 21 Calcutta 1977 Bob Willis
Virat Kohli 40 Rajkot 2016 Adil Rashid

Virat has also been out hit wicket in a One-Day International -- at Cardiff in 2011 off Graeme Swann after scoring 107, also against England!

This makes him only the second Indian batsman (and 10th overall) to be out in this fashion in both Tests and ODIs, after Nayan Mongia.

Alastair Cook and Haseeb Hameed added 180 runs for the opening wicket in England's second innings.

This is the highest opening partnership by any visiting side in India in their second innings in a Test, obliterating New Zealand's Matt Horne and Gary Stead's 131 runs at Ahmedabad in 1999.

Cookie and Haseeb's partnership is also England's highest opening partnership in India -- in the first or second innings -- beating the 178 run partnership between Graeme Fowler and Tim Robinson at Madras) in 1984-1985.

Haseeb was unlucky to miss out on a well deserved hundred. He can take some solace that he now holds the record of being the youngest to score a Test 50 for England at the age of 19 years, 300 days.

Also his match tally of 113 runs (31 and 82) is the highest for an England teenager in his debut Test, surpassing Jack Crawford's 87 in 1905-1906.

Cook's 30th Test hundred puts him ahead of the Don in the centurions list.

It took Cookie 136 Tests for his 30th Test ton. The Don scored his 29 centuries in just 52 Tests.

Cook has now scored more hundreds than any other visiting batsman in India.

IMAGE: Cook celebrates his century.

Most 100s versus India in India

100sPlayerForMatchesInningsInnings/100
5 Alastair Cook England 9 18 3.60
4 Everton Weekes West Indies 5 7 1.75
4 Clive Lloyd West Indies 14 22 5.50
4 Hashim Amla South Africa 10 17 4.25

Cook has also scored 9 hundreds in Asia, the most scored by a non-Asian batsman. He went ahead of South Africa's Jacques Kallis in Rajkot.

Most 100s by non-Asian batsmen in Asia

100sPlayerForMtsInningsInnings/100
9 Alastair Cook England 24 47 5.22
8 Jacques Kallis South Africa 25 44 5.50
7 Hashim Amla South Africa 23 39 5.57
6 Allan Border Australia 22 39 6.50
5 Brian Lara West Indies 14 26 5.20
5 Darren Bravo West Indies 17 31 6.20
5 Andy Flower Zimbabwe 21 38 7.60
5 Ricky Ponting Australia 28 48 9.60

England's match tally of 797 runs for the loss of 13 wickets is its highest in a Test in India, beating 741 for the loss of 15 wickets at Kanpur in 1961-1962.

This is also the 7th best performance by any visiting side in India.

Most runs by a visiting side in a Test in India

Runs-WicketsForVenueSeasonInnings1Innings2Result
885/16 Zimbabwe Nagpur 2000-2001 382 503/6d Drawn
871/15 South Africa Chennai 2007-2008 540 331/5d Drawn
831/12 Pakistan Bangalore 2004 570 261/2d Won
809/9 West Indies Mumbai 1975 604/6d 205/3d Won
808/19 Pakistan Mohali 2004 312 496/9d Drawn
798/18 New Zealand Hyderabad 2011 350 448/8d Drawn
797/13 England Rajkot 2016 537 260/3d Drawn
795/13 South Africa Kolkata 1996 428 367/3d Won
760/7 Sri Lanka Ahmedabad 2009 760/7d   Drawn
744/12 Australia Chennai 1986 574/d 170/5d Tied
744/13 West Indies Mohali 1994 443 301/3d Won

,font size=7>Ravichandran Ashwin had an entirely forgettable outing as he went for 230 runs in the Test while picking up only 3 wickets.

In comparison he conceded 225 runs against New Zealand at Kanpur in the last series, but took 10 wickets in the match.

Most runs conceded by Indian bowlers in a home Test

 OversRunsWicketsOpponentVenueSeason
Harbhajan Singh 78.5 265 8 South Africa Chennai 2007
Sadu Shinde 108.3 253 8 England Delhi 1951
Anil Kumble 67 247 1 Pakistan Bangalore 2004
Subhash Gupte 88 244 5 West Indies Chennai 1958
Anil Kumble 76 236 6 Pakistan Mohali 2004
Bhagwat Chandrasekhar 92.5 235 11 West Indies Bombay, Brabourne Stadium 1966-67
Anil Kumble 89 233 10 England Ahmedabad 2001
Karsan Ghavri 52 232 6 West Indies Mumbai 1975
Dilip Doshi 68 232 8 Sri Lanka Madras 1982
Ravichandran Ashwin 69.3 230 3 England Rajkot 2016
Ravichandran Ashwin 66.2 225 10 New Zealand Kanpur 2016

England set India a winning target of 310 runs in a minimum of 49 overs (The Englishmen bowled more overs than that) -- at a run-rate of over 6.

The highest run-rate ever achieved by any side to successfully chase down a target of 300 or more in the 4th innings is 5.25.

Perhaps England missed a trick there as Cook & Co could have given themselves a few more overs to bowl out India.

Highest run-rate in fourth innings successful chases of 300+

Runs Per OverForTotalOpponentVenueSeason
5.25 Pakistan 302/5 Sri Lanka Sharjah 2013-14
5.19 West Indies 344/1 England Lord's 1984
4.29 England 315/4 Australia Leeds 2001
4.21 Australia 334/6 South Africa Cape Town 2001
3.92 India 387/4 England Chennai 2008-2009

Captain Kohli steered India out of trouble. His dogged batting -- first with Ashwin and then with Ravindra Jadeja -- meant India ended the Test with a draw.

Virat's mastery in ODI and T20 chases is well-known, but his performance in Test cricket under extreme pressure has not been given much attention.

It may be difficult to believe, but Virat Kohli has the highest batting average in the fourth innings of Tests among all Indian batsmen who have aggregated 500 or more runs.

Highest batting average in 4th innings in Tests

(Minimum 500 runs for India)

 InnsRunsHighest ScoreAverage10050
Virat Kohli 15 718 141 65.27 2 4
Sunil Gavaskar 33 1,398 221 58.25 4 8
Rahul Dravid 56 1,552 103* 40.84 1 9
V V S Laxman 38 1,095 103* 40.55 1 7
Sourav Ganguly 32 864 101* 37.56 1 3
Sachin Tendulkar 60 1625 136 36.93 3 7
Gundappa Viswanath 24 668 112 33.40 1 4
Mohammad Azharuddin 22 610 108* 32.10 2 1
Virender Sehwag 33 894 83 31.92 0 8
Dilip Vengsarkar 25 613 146* 29.19 1 3

Among all the teams to tour India in last five years, England have the best record.

Of the five Tests England have played, it has won two, lost one and drawn two.

The combined tally of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies during this period reads: No win, 16 losses and two draws!

Visiting sides in India since 2011

 TestsWonLostDrawnWin%
England 5 2 1 2 40.00
WI, NZ, Aus, SA 18 0 16 2 0.00

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Rajneesh Gupta

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE 2024

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE 2024