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Rediff.com  » Cricket » The Indore Test and more in numbers

The Indore Test and more in numbers

By Rajneesh Gupta
October 12, 2016 18:08 IST
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Rajneesh Gupta presents the numbers from the Indore Test.

IMAGE: Ravichandran Ashwin, right, celebrates a wicket with Virat Kohli. Photograph: BCCI

Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin claimed career-best figures while Cheteshwar Pujara hit a century as India crushed New Zealand by 321 runs in the third Test in Indore to complete a 3-0 series whitewash.

Ashwin, who claimed 6/81 in the first innings, took 7/59 as New Zealand were bundled out for 159 after being set a huge 475 for victory at the Holkar stadium which was hosting its first Test match.

Rajneesh Gupta looks at the numbers in the Indore Test:

The Holkar stadium became the 22nd Indian ground to host a Test. Indore became the 16th Indian city to host a Test match. No other country has used so many grounds or cities to host Test matches.

Test match venues:

Host CountryCentresGroundsTests hosted
India 16 22 251
Pakistan 12 17 151
West Indies 12 12 237
England 10 10 506
Australia 8 9 404
South Africa 8 11 217
New Zealand 6 8 197
Bangladesh 5 7 52
Sri Lanka 5 8 129
UAE 3 3 25
Zimbabwe 2 3 54
TOTAL 86 109 2,223

Notes:

Lord's and The Oval are considered as two different centres though they are in the same city, London.

One centre/ground -- Dacca (Dhaka)/Dacca Stadium (Bangabandhu Stadium) -- has been used by two countries (Pakistan and Bangladesh).

Virat Kohli, who had not scored a fifty in his last seven innings, got his form back and scored a magnificent 211 in India's first innings in the third Test in Indore.

Kohli became the first Indian captain to score two double tons in Test cricket -- both knocks coming this year. He scored 200 against the West Indies at North Sound in July.

Highest scores by Indian captains in Tests

CaptainRunsOpponentVenueSeason
M S Dhoni 224 Australia Chennai 2012-2013
Sachin Tendulkar 217 New Zealand Ahmedabad 1999-2000
Virat Kohli 211 New Zealand Indore 2016-2017
Sunil Gavaskar 205 West Indies Mumbai 1978-1079
Tiger Pataudi 203* England Delhi 1963-1964
Virat Kohli 200 West Indies North Sound 2016

Ajinkya Rahane

IMAGE: Ajinkya Rahane celebrates his century in Indore. Photograph: BCCI

Ajinkya Rahane missed out on a double hundred, but like Kohli, he made his highest Test score, surpassing the 147 he made against Australia at Melbourne in 2014-2015.

On that occasion too, both Kohli and Rahane made their highest Test score in the same innings of the same Test!

Rahane has now played nine consecutive series in which he has made a score of at least 90.

Kohli and Rahane put on 365 runs, India's highest fourth wicket partnership in Test cricket against any country, obliterating the 353-run partnership between Sachin Tendulkar and V V S Laxman versus Australia at Sydney in 2003-2004.

India’s highest partnerships in Tests:

RunsWktBatsmenOpponentVenueSeason
413 1st Vinoo Mankad & Pankaj Roy New Zealand Madras 1955-1956
410 1st Virender Sehwag & Rahul Dravid Pakistan Lahore 2005-2006
376 5th V V S Laxman & Rahul Dravid Australia Kolkata 2000-2001
370 2nd Murali Vijay & Cheteshwar Pujara Australia Hyderabad 2012-2013
365 4th Virat Kohli & Ajinkya Rahane New Zealand Indore 2016-2017
353 4th Sachin Tendulkar & V V S Laxman Australia Sydney 2003-2004

India declared their first innings at 557/5.

This is the highest total posted by India in the match's first innings at a home ground hosting its first Test match.

Even though, the Feroz Shah Kotla (Delhi), the Brabourne Stadium and the Wankhede Stadium (Bombay, now Mumbai) saw higher totals being scored in the first-ever Tests hosted by these grounds, they were scored by the opposition.

Interestingly, India made 610/3 declared in the very first Test match in Mirpur, Bangladesh.

India's 557/5 declared was their third highest against New Zealand.

India's highest totals against New Zealand

TotalVenueSeasonResult (for India)
583/7d Ahmedabad 1999-2000 Drawn
566/8d Nagpur 2010-2011 Won
557/5d Indore 2016-17 Won
537/3d Chennai 1955-1956 Won
531/7d Delhi 1955-1956 Drawn

Ravichandran Ashwin, after an ordinary outing in the second Test in Kolkata, was back in his groove as he decimatedt he New Zealand batting by taking 6/81 in the first innings.

This was his 20th 5-wicket haul in Test cricket. He became only the 4th Indian to take 20 5-wicket hauls after Anil Kumble (35), Harbhajan Singh (25) and Kapil Dev (23).

What is more remarkable is that Ashwin has achieved this record at an astonishing pace.

In Test history only two bowlers have taken 20 5-wicket hauls in fewer Tests than Ashwin. And those two bowlers -- Syd Barnes and Clarrie Grimmett -- belonged to a different era altogether displaying their craft on uncovered pitches.

Ashwin is well ahead of the leader of modern times -- Waqar Younis. The fastest Indian to reach this mark previously was Harbhajan Singh (in 59 Tests).

Least Tests to take 20 5-wicket hauls

TestsBowler
25 Syd Barnes (England)
37 Clarrie Grimmett (Australia)
39 Ravichandran Ashwin (India)
51 Waqar Younis (Pakistan)
54 Ian Botham (England)

With a first innings lead of 258 runs, Kohli could have asked New Zealand to follow on, but he decided against it and preferred to bat instead.

This was the sixth instance of an Indian captain not enforcing the follow-on despite being entitled to do so. Kohli is the only one to have done so more than once.

Indian captains not enforcing the follow-on

OpponentVenueSeasonLeadCaptainResult (for India)
New Zealand Ahmedabad 1999-2000 275 Sachin Tendulkar Drawn
Australia Sydney 2003-2004 231 Sourav Ganguly Drawn
England The Oval 2007 319 Rahul Dravid Drawn
Australia Mohali 2008-2009 201 M S Dhoni Won
South Africa Delhi 2015-2016 213 Virat Kohli Won
New Zealand Indore 2016-2017 258 Virat Kohli Won

India declared their second innings soon after Cheteshwar Pujara completed his eighth Test hundred.

Pujara averages a whopping 66.21 at home for a tally of 1,854 runs in 20 Tests.

Among all Indian batsmen, who have aggregated 1,000 or more runs in Tests at home, only one -- Vijay Hazare -- has a higher batting average than Pujara.

Most prolific Indian batsmen at home:

 MtsRunsHsAvg10050
Vijay Hazare 13 1,113 164* 69.56 5 4
Cheteshwar Pujara 20 1,854 206* 66.21 6 7
Mohammad Azharuddin 46 3,412 199 55.93 13 11
Dilip Vengsarkar 54 3,725 166 55.59 13 15
Virender Sehwag 52 4,656 319 54.13 13 19
Navjot Singh Sidhu 23 1,726 131 53.93 5 9
Sachin Tendulkar 94 7,216 217 52.67 22 32
V V S Laxman 57 3,767 281 51.60 8 24
Rahul Dravid 70 5,598 222 51.35 15 27
Sunil Gavaskar 65 5,067 236* 50.16 16 23

The Indore Test provided the 13th instance of an Indian captain declaring both innings of a Test.

Most of these instances came at home as one would imagine, 11 to be precise and only two came outside India (Sydney, 2003-2004 and Chittagong, 2007).

This was only the second time when India went on to win after a double declaration.

The only other such instance had also been against New Zealand. At Bangalore in 1988-1989, Dilip Vengsarkar made the declarations in both innings and then went on to win the game by 172 runs.

Ashwin did not take long to cast his web around the New Zealand batsmen for the second time in the match. The visitors lost their way completely in the post-tea session on the fourth day, losing nine wickets.

Ashwin picked up seven of them giving away only 59 runs -- his best return in Test cricket.

Ashwin's match figures of 13/140 are his personal best (improving upon 12/85 also against New Zealand at Hyderabad in 2012) and the best by any Indian bowler against New Zealand.

There have been six instances of an Indian bowler taking 10 wickets in a match against New Zealand and Ashwin appears in three of them!

Best match figures for India versus New Zealand:

FiguresBowlerVenueSeason1st Innings2nd Innings
13/140 Ravichandran Ashwin Indore 2016-2017 6/81 7/59
12/85 Ravichandran Ashwin Hyderabad 2012 6/31 6/54
12/152 S Venkataraghavan Delhi 1964-1965 8/72 4/80
11/140 E A S Prasanna Auckland 1975-1976 3/64 8/76
10/134 Anil Kumble Kanpur 1999-2000 4/67 6/67
10/225 Ravichandran Ashwin Kanpur 2016-2017 4/93 6/132

Ashwin'S figures are the best by a spinner and the second best by any bowler against New Zealand.

Best match figures versus New Zealand:

FiguresBowlerVenueSeason1st Innings2nd Innings
13-55 Courtney Walsh Wellington 1994-1995 7/37 6/18
13/140 Ravichandran Ashwin Indore 2016-2017 6/81 7/59
12/85 Ravichandran Ashwin Hyderabad 2012 6/31 6/54
12/97 Derek Underwood Christchurch 1970-1971 6/12 6/85
12/101 Derek Underwood The Oval 1969 6/41 6/60
12/130 Waqar Younis Faisalabad 1990-1991 7/76 5/54
12/152 S Venkataraghavan Delhi 1964/65 8/72 4/80

This was the sixth instance that Ashwin bagged ten wickets in a Test match.

Among the Indians only Anil Kumble is ahead of him with eight hauls. The frequency at which Ashwin has taken 10-wicket match hauls is simply astonishing.

Indians with most 10-wicket match hauls in Tests:

 10WMMatchesMatch/10WM
Anil Kumble 8 132 16.50
Ravichandran Ashwin 6 39 6.50
Harbhajan Singh 5 103 20.60
Irfan Pathan 2 29 14.50
Maninder Singh 2 35 17.50
Vinoo Mankad 2 44 22.00
E A S Prasanna 2 49 24.50
Bhagwat Chandrasekhar 2 58 29.00
Kapil Dev 2 131 65.50

Ravichandran Ashwin

IMAGE: Ashwin in action. Photograph: BCCI

Ashwin/s 10/225 at Kanpur and 13/140 at Indore made him only the second Indian to capture 10 wickets twice in the same series, after Harbhajan Singh who did so against Australia in 2000-2001.

Ashwin has also gone past Ishant Sharma (209 wickets) to become India's eighth highest wicket-taker of all time, a list headed by Anil Kumble (619 wickets).

And he enjoys the best average and best strike both!

Most wickets in Tests for India:

 MatchesWicketsBestAveraegStrike R5WI10WM
Anil Kumble 132 619 10/74 29.65 65.99 35 8
Kapil Dev 131 434 9-/83 29.64 63.91 23 2
Harbhajan Singh 103 417 8/84 32.46 68.53 25 5
Zaheer Khan 92 311 7/87 32.94 60.40 11 1
Bishen Singh Bedi 67 266 7/98 28.71 80.31 14 1
Bhagwat Chandrasekhar 58 242 8/79 29.74 65.96 16 2
Javagal Srinath 67 236 8/86 30.49 64.00 10 1
Ravichandran Ashwin 39 220 7/59 24.29 49.49 21 6
Ishant Sharma 72 209 7/74 36.71 66.61 7 1
E A S Prasanna 49 189 8/76 30.38 75.94 10 2

Clarrie Grimmett could not play more than 37 Tests and Syd Barnes ended his career with 27 Test appearances, so we don't know how many wickets they would have ended with had they continued.

Among all greats who had a fairly long Test careers, no one, yes, no one had taken as many wickets as Ashwin has taken at this stage of his career. Take a look:

Most wickets after first 39 Tests:

 WicketsAverageSR5WI10WM
Ravichandran Ashwin 220 24.29 49.49 21 6
Clarrie Grimmett 216 24.22 67.19 21 7
Waqar Younis 208 20.56 38.59 19 4
Dennis Lillee 206 23.63 51.79 15 5
Dale Steyn 204 23.05 39.00 14 4
Stuart MacGill 191 27.35 52.07 12 2
Syd Barnes 189 16.43 41.66 24 7

Note: Harbhajan Singh held the previous Indian record with 172 wickets

Ashwin ended the series with 27 wickets against his name. He has now taken 25 wickets (or more) in a series on three occasions.

Among the Indians only one bowler -- Kapil Dev -- has done so more often.

Indians with most instances of 25 wickets in a series:

OccasionsBowlerSeries played
4 Kapil Dev 38
3 Ravichandran Ashwin 14
3 Bishen Singh Bedi 19

The series saw umpires giving batsmen out leg before wicket on as many as 33 occasions, with New Zealand batsmen at the receiving end 22 times and Indians 11 times.

There has been only one three match series where more LBWs were given, which was the Pakistan versus England series in the UAE in 2011-2012 in which 43 LBWs were registered.

New Zealand's 22 LBWs are the joint-most suffered by a side in a three-match, along with England.

Most LBWs in a three-match series:

LBWsTeamsVenueSeason
43 Pak (21) vs England (22) UAE 2011-2012
33 West Indies (16) vs Pakistan (17) West Indies 1992-1993
33 India (11) vs New Zealand (22) India 2016-2017
31 Pakistan (14) vs West Indies (17) Pakistan 1986-1987
31 Australia (11) vs Pakistan (20) Sri Lanka/UAE 2002-2003
30 England (18) vs India (12) England 2007

The match ended on the fourth day with India registering its second biggest win in terms of runs.

The biggest ever win had come against South Africa only last season, with Kohli captaining the side on both occasions.

India's biggest Test wins (by run-margin):

MarginOpponentVenueSeason
337 runs South Africa Delhi 2015-2016
321 runs New Zealand Indore 2016-2017
320 runs Australia Mohali 2008-2009
280 runs South Africa Kanpur 1996-1997
279 runs England Leeds 1986
278 runs Sri Lanka Colombo PSS 2015
272 runs New Zealand Auckland 1967-1968
259 runs Sri Lanka Ahmedabad 2005-2006
255 runs West Indies Madras 1987-1988

The mammoth win also gave India only their fourth clean sweep in a series of three matches or more.

India making a clean-sweep in a series (minimum 3 Tests)

ScoreSeriesSeasonCaptain
4-0 vs Australia in India 2012-2013 M S Dhoni
3-0 vs England in India 1992-1993 M Azharuddin
3-0 vs Sri Lanka in India 1993-1994 M Azharuddin
3-0 vs New Zealand in India 2016-2017 Virat Kohli

India have now won four consecutive series -- vs Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka in 2015 (2-1), vs South Africa at home in 2015-16 (3-0), vs the West Indies in the West Indies (2-0) and now vs New Zealand at home.

There has been only one longer streak of consecutive series wins in India's entire Test history.

Between 2009 and 2010 India won five series in a row. They had also won four on the trot under Mohammad Azharuddin between 1993 and 1994.

Most consecutive series wins for India:

#SeasonSeriesScoreMtsCaptain
5+ 2008-2009 vs Australia in India 2-0 4 A Kumble/M S Dhoni
  2008-2009 vs England in India 1-0 2 M S Dhoni
  2008-2009 vs New Zealand in New Zealand 1-0 3 M S Dhoni/V Sehwag
  2009-2010 vs Sri Lanka in India 2-0 3 M S Dhoni
  2009-2010 vs Bangladesh in Bangladesh 2-0 2 V Sehwag/M S Dhoni
  1992-1993 vs England in India 3-0 3 M Azharuddin
  1992-1993 vs Zimbabwe in India 1-0 1 M Azharuddin
  1993-94 vs Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka 1-0 3 M Azharuddin
  1993-94 vs Sri Lanka in India 3-0 3 M Azharuddin
4* 2015 vs Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka 2-1 3 Virat Kohli
  2015-16 vs South Africa in India 3-0 4 Virat Kohli
  2016 vs West Indies in the West Indies 2-0 4 Virat Kohli
  2016-17 vs New Zealand in India 3-0 3 Virat Kohli

Note:

+India had a sequence of 11 undefeated series-W,W,W,W,W,D,D,W,W,D,W

++India had a sequence of 7 undefeated series: W,W,W,W,D,D,W

There was hardly any challenge to Ashwin winning yet another player of the series award -- his seventh in Test cricket.

Ashwin's seven player of series awards are the most by an Indian (Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar won five each).

There are only five players who have won more awards than Ashwin. The frequency at which Ashwin is winning his awards is simply mindblowing -- an award every two series on an average!

Ashwin has won player of the series awards in four consecutive series -- vs Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka (2015), vs South Africa in India (2015-16), vs the West Indies in West Indies (2016) and vs New Zealand in India (2016-17).

He now shares the world record of winning the most consecutive player of the series awards.

Most player of series awards in Tests:

Match of the Series awardsPlayerSeries playedAverage Series/MoS award
11

Muttiah Muralitharan

62 5.64
9

Jacques Kallis

62 6.89
8

Richard Hadlee

33 4.13
8

Imran Khan

28 3.50
8

Shane Warne

46 5.75
7

Ravichandran Ashwin

14 2.00
7

Wasim Akram

43 6.14
7

S Chanderpaul

60 8.57

India's Test record at the end of the New Zealand series makes interesting reading: 502 Tests -- 251 at home, 251 abroad!

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Rajneesh Gupta

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE 2024

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE 2024