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Rediff.com  » Cricket » Kohli equals Tiger & Sunny's records

Kohli equals Tiger & Sunny's records

By Rajneesh Gupta
Last updated on: October 04, 2016 15:23 IST
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Rajneesh Gupta's fascinating figures from the Kolkata Test.

The Indian players celebrate a Kiwi wicket on Day 4 of the 2nd Test at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, October 3, 2016. Photograph: BCCI

IMAGE: The Indian players celebrate a Kiwi wicket on Day 4 of the 2nd Test at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, October 3, 2016. Photograph: BCCI

India registered a resounding 178 run win over New Zealand at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, taking an unbeatable 2-0 lead against the visitors in the three-Test series.

The win enabled India to ascend the No 1 spot in the ICC Test rankings, dislodging Pakistan.

Important takeaways from the win:

The Test was India's 250th Test at home.

A chronology of India's milestone Tests.

India's milestone Tests at home

Test #OpponentVenueYearCaptainResult (for India)
1st England Bombay Gymkhana 1933 C K Nayudu Lost by 9 wickets
50th England Delhi 1964 Mansur Ali Khan 'Tiger' Pataudi Drawn
100th Pakistan Bangalore 1979 Sunil Gavaskar Drawn
150th Zimbabwe Delhi 1993 Mohammed Azharuddin Won by an innings and 13 runs
200th Pakistan Kolkata 2005 Sourav Ganguly Won by 195 runs
250th New Zealand Kolkata 2016 Virat Kohli Won by 178 runs
 

For a change, India's win was not dominated by the spinners as Mohammad Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 12 wickets.

There has been only one Test win at home in which Indian pacers got more wickets than the spinners. The details:

IMAGE: Bhuvneshwar Kumar celebrates Henry Nicholls' wicket, October 1, 2016. Photograph: BCCI

Most wickets taken by Indian pacers in a win at home

WktsRunsAvgVsVenueSeason
15 376 25.06 Pakistan Chennai 1979-1980
12 155 12.91 England Mumbai 1981-1982
12 192 16.00 New Zealand Kolkata 2016-2017
11 171 15.54 West Indies Kolkata 2013-2014
11 177 16.09 West Indies Chennai 1978-1979
11 242 22.00 Australia Mohali 2010-2011
11 304 27.63 Zimbabwe Delhi 2000-2001
 

This India-New Zealand series has seen an unusually large number of LBW dismissals.

As many as 11 LBW decisions were given in the Kanpur Test. 15 more such dismissals (a new record in India) at the Eden Gardens took the series tally to 26 -- the highest ever in a three-match series in India.

The previous record was 24 in the India-South Africa series in 1996-1997.

Most number of LBW dismissals in a series in India.

LBWsDismissals%Series
26 75 34.66 India v New Zealand, 2016-2017*
24 110 21.81 India v South Africa, 1996-1097
23 80 28.75 India v Pakistan, 1998-1999**
20 100 20.00 India v New Zealand, 1988-1989
20 89 22.47 India v Sri Lanka, 2005-2006
20 87 22.98 India v New Zealand, 2010-2011
20 101 19.80 India v West Indies, 2011-2012
 

* series still not ended

** two-match series

Most LBW dismissals in a Test in India

LBWsDismissals%TeamsVenueSeason
15 40 37.50 India v New Zealand Kolkata 2016-2017
13 40 32.50 India v South Africa Ahmedabad 1996-1997
12 40 30.00 India v Pakistan Chennai 1998-1999
 

Wriddhiman Saha played a crucial part in India's success by being the highest scoring batsman in the match from the either side.

Saha's twin-fifties in the match made him only the fourth Indian Indian wicket-keeper to score fifties in both innings of a Test, joining Dilawar Hussain, Farokh Engineer and M S Dhoni. Dhoni has done so four times.

IMAGE: Wriddhiman Saha sweeps the ball against New Zealand in Kolkata. Photograph: BCCI

Indian wicket-keepers scoring fifties in both innings of a Test

'KeeperInns1Inns2OppositionVenueSeason
Dilawar Hussain 59 57 England Kolkata 1933-1934
Farokh Engineer 121 66 England Bombay (Brabourne Stadium) 1972-1973
M S Dhoni 92 68* Australia Mohali 2008-2009
M S Dhoni 56 55 Australia Nagpur 2008-2009
M S Dhoni 52 56* New Zealand Wellington 2008-2009
M S Dhoni 77 74* England Birmingham 2011
Wriddhiman Saha 54* 58* New Zealand Kolkata 2016-2017
 

Ravichandran Ashwin completed the all round double of 1,500 runs and 200 wickets in Test cricket.

In doing so in 38 Tests, Ashwin became the quickest to reach this mark.

Ashwin needed two Tests fewer than Ian Botham, who held the record previously.

Fastest to allround double of 1,500 runs and 200 wickets

TestPlayerBat AvgBowling Average
38th Ravichandran Ashwin 33.55 25.14
41st Ian Botham 32.41 21.21
44th Richard Hadlee 24.26 25.83
45th Imran Khan 28.07 23.81
49th Richie Benaud 24.48 24.73
49th Shaun Pollock 27.15 20.26
50th Kapil Dev 32.26 29.33
 

The figures are at the end of the Test in which the milestone was achieved.

Ashwin has now taken 139 wickets in 20 home Tests, which takes him ahead of Bishen Singh Bedi's tally of 137 wickets at home.

Now only four bowlers -- Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Kapil Dev and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar -- have taken more wickets than Ashwin at home.

Indian bowlers with most wickets at home

 MatchesWicketsAverage5I10M
Anil Kumble 63 350 24.88 25 7
Harbhajan Singh 55 265 28.76 18 4
Kapil Dev 65 219 26.49 11 2
Bhagwat Chandrasekhar 32 142 27.69 8 1
Ravichandran Ashwin 21 140 21.26 14 4
Bishen Singh Bedi 30 137 23.99 8 0
Javagal Srinath 32 108 26.61 5 1
Zaheer Khan 38 104 35.87 3 0
Vinoo Mankad 23 103 26.53 4 2
Pragyan Ojha 20 101 27.51 7 1
 

IMAGE: India's captain Virat Kohli celebrates. Photographs: Adnan Abidi/Reuters.

With hardly anyone noticing it, Virat Kohli has gone ahead of Rahul Dravid and equalled Tiger Pataudi and Sunil Gavaskar’s tally of wins as captain. Now only MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly and Mohammad Azharuddin have won more Tests than Virat for India.

Virat is yet to lose a Test at home.... in fact he is yet to lose a toss at home!!!

Virat’s record as Test captain

 MtsWonLostDrawnWin%
at home 6 5 0 1 83.33
away 10 4 2 4 40.00
overall 16 9 2 5 56.25
 

India's most successful captains (in terms of wins)

 MatchesWonLostDrawnWin%
M S Dhoni 60 27 18 15 45.00
Sourav Ganguly 49 21 13 15 42.86
Mohammad Azharuddin 47 14 14 19 29.79
Virat Kohli 16 9 2 5 56.25
Mansur Ali Khan 'Tiger' Pataudi 40 9 19 12 22.50
Sunil Gavaskar 47 9 8 30 19.15
Rahul Dravid 25 8 6 11 32.00
 

Virat Kohli has not suffered a single defeat in his last 12 Tests as captain.

Among all the Indian captains only three have a longer undefeated streak. Take a look:

Longest unbeaten streaks for Indian captains

TestsResultsCaptainFromTo
18 6 wins, 12 draws Sunil Gavaskar January 24, 1976 January 20, 1980
17 4 wins, 13 draws Kapil Dev September 14, 1985 March 9, 1987
14 9 wins, 5 draws Mohammad Azharuddin January 2 1993 December 5, 1994
12* 9 wins, 3 draws Virat Kohli August 20, 2015  
10 1 win, 9 draws Sachin Tendulkar April 4, 1997 November 2, 1999
 

Gavaskar's winning streak came at the start of his captaincy stint.

Kapil's streak came towards the end of his captaincy career, which ended with a defeat in his last Test as captain.

India are now undefeated in 13 consecutive home Tests (since losing to England at Kolkata in December 2012).

There have been only two longer undefeated home streaks for India in all Tests. The details:

India's longest undefeated streaks at home

TestsWonDrawnPeriod
20 6 14 1977-1980
16 2 14 1960-1964
13* 11 2 2012 till date
12 7 5 2001-2003
12 9 3 2010-2012
 

The win was India's...

  • 131st in 501 Tests
  • 89th in 250 Tests at home
  • 20th in 56 Tests vs New Zealand
  • 15th in 33 Tests vs New Zealand at home
  • 12th in 40 Tests at Kolkata
  • 9th
  • 5th in 6 Tests under Virat at home

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Rajneesh Gupta

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE 2024

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE 2024