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Rediff.com  » Cricket » India is century-man Smith's favourite opposition!

India is century-man Smith's favourite opposition!

Source: PTI
March 25, 2017 20:43 IST
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It was a memorable Test debut for chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav, who had figures of 4 for 68 on Day 1 of the 4th Test.

But it was opposition captain Steve Smith who equally stole the show on the day with a brilliant century – his 7th vs India.

Here are the statistical highlights from the opening day's play of the fourth and final cricket  Test between India and Australia, played in Dharamsala on Saturday.

Smith celebrates after completing his century on Saturday

IMAGE: Smith celebrates after completing his century on Saturday. Photograph: BCCI

# The Dharamsala Test is India's 50th vs Australia on Indian soil. Hitherto India had played 50 Tests or more (60) in India only against England.

# Ajinkya Rahane became the 33rd captain to lead India in Tests after Virat Kohli was ruled out of the final match due to shoulder injury while fielding in the Ranchi Test.

# Virat Kohli has missed the Dharamsala Test vs Australia after playing a massive 54 consecutive Tests since November 2011 (vs West Indies at Mumbai).

# Steven Smith's 20th century in Tests is his seventh against India. He is one of the nine batsmen to hit seven hundreds or more vs India, joining Ricky Ponting, Garry Sobers and Vivian Richards -- 8 each and Everton Weekes, Clive Lloyd, Jacques Kallis, Michael Clarke and Shivnarine Chanderpaul -- 7 each.

# Smith has taken 54 Tests to hit 20 hundreds. Only two batsmen have taken less number of Tests to achieve the feat -- Don Bradman (35) and Sunil Gavaskar (50). Further, his feat of taking 99 innings to reach 20 centuries is the fourth quickest in terms of innings -- the top three being Bradman (55), Gavaskar (93) and Matthew Hayden (95).

# With four hundreds, (including three as captain) in the 2014-15 series vs India, Smith is the first captain to post three hundreds in a Test series twice against them. Bradman had posted four centuries while scoring 715 runs (ave 178.75) in the 1947-48 series -- the only one to hit four as captain in a Test series vs India.

# Smith's tally of 482 (ave 80.33) in the present series is the highest by any batsman on either side. His aggregate is the sixth highest by a visiting captain in a Test series in India -- the highest being 636 (ave 79.50) in five Tests by Clive Lloyd in 1974-75.

# Matthew Wade (57) posted his second fifty vs India -- his fourth in Tests. Besides he has registered two hundreds -- one each vs Sri Lanka and West Indies.

# Since registering 62 vs India at Hyderabad in March 2013, Wade's splendid 57 off 125 balls is his first fifty in fifteen innings.

# Ashwin has 79 wickets at an average of 25.87 in 13 Tests, establishing a record for most wickets in a season, eclipsing the 78 (ave 16.24) in 12 Tests in the 2007-08 season by Dale Steyn (South Africa).

# For the fourth time in a Test innings for Australia, number four, five and six batsmen got dismissed in single-digit scores vs India -- the last instance being in the second innings of the 2004-05 Mumbai Test -- the 48th instance for Australia overall in Tests.

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