Chennai Test, India v Australia 2004/05, Statistical Highlights

Chennai Test, India v Australia 2004/05, Statistical Highlights by Rajneesh Gupta

Scorecard:

India v Australia

First Day:

Mohammad Kaif was making a comeback in to Indian side after a gap of three years. He had last appeared for India in a Test against Sri Lanka at Colombo SSC in August-September 2001. Since then he missed 31 Tests.
Sourav Ganguly was captaining India in a Test for the 40th time. With this he equalled Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi’s tally. Now only Sunil Gavaskar and Mohammad Azharuddin are ahead of him in captaining India on more occasions. Both Gavaskar and Azharuddin led India in 47 Tests each.
Ganguly was captaining India at home soil for the 16th time in a Test. He has won toss on Indian soil only on 5 occasions and lost on as many as 11 occasions. His winning-toss percentage of 31.25 is the lowest for any player captaining India in more than one Test.
Ganguly has now lost all five tosses against Australia in home matches.
The caught and bowled dismissal of Shane Warne was 23rd such dismissal for Anil Kumble. He now holds the world record of dismissing most batsmen in this fashion. Kumble was earlier at level with Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan with 22 such dismissals.
Kumble (7-48) was capturing seven wickets in an innings for the fifth time in his career. With this he equalled Kapil Dev’s Indian record of taking seven wickets in an innings.
Virender Sehwag completed his 2,000 runs in Test cricket when his score reached 10. He became 28th Indian to reach this milestone. Sehwag now shares the record with Rahul Dravid of being the fastest among the Indians to complete 2,000 runs in terms of least innings. Both Dravid and Sehwag took 40 innings to accomplish this feat. In terms of Tests Sehwag is second fastest alongwith Dravid after Sunil Gavaskar who reached this milestone in his 23rd Test as against 25 Tests taken by both Dravid and Sehwag.
The wicket of Yuvraj was 532nd for Warne which takes him at level with Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan’s world record tally.

Second Day:

Shane Warne became the leading wicket-taker in Test cricket when he had Irfan Pathan caught in the slip by Matthew Hayden. This was the 533rd wicket for Warne and he eclipsed Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan’s record of 532 wickets
Virender Sehwag (155) scored his seventh Test century, second against Australia and 20th in first class cricket.
With this innings, Sehwag has taken his career tally to 2,145 runs after 40 Test innings, which is the HIGHEST for any Indian batsman after exactly 40 innings. Rahul Dravid was the previous record holder for India with an aggregate of 2,023 runs.

Aighest run-aggregate for India after 40 innings:

Batsman                 Runs    M  NO    Ave     HS   100  50   0
V Sehwag                2145   25   0   53.62   309    7    6   4
RS Dravid               2023   25   3   54.68   190    3   15   1
VS Hazare               1851   23   5   52.89   164*   6    8   2
SC Ganguly              1800   25   3   48.65   173    6    6   3
M Azharuddin            1799   27   3   48.62   199    6    6   1
SM Gavaskar             1770   21   5   50.57   220    6   10   3
SR Tendulkar            1725   28   4   47.92   165    6    9   3
PR Umrigar              1643   27   4   45.64   223    6    6   2
Nawab of Pataudi, jun.  1591   23   2   41.87   203*   6    5   3

Incidentally Sehwag’s seven centuries are also the most scored by any Indian after exactly 40 innings.
Sehwag also completed his 6,000 runs in first class cricket when his score reached 79. He was playing his 75th first class match and 117th innings. At the end of this innings, Sehwag has aggregated 6,076 runs in his f-c career, which have come off only 7,614 balls - a strike rate of 79.80
Interestingly Sehwag has now hit 874 fours and 90 sixes in his first class career, which gives him a whopping boundary percentage of 66.42 !
Sehwag’s innings of 155 is the highest by an Indian opening batsman against Australia at home. The previous best was Nayan Mongia’s 152 at Delhi in 1996-97.
The century was Sehwag’s sixth as an opener. He thus moved ahead of Vinoo Mankad’s tally of five. Among the Indians only Sunil Gavaskar (33) and Navjot Sidhu (8) have scored more centuries than Sehwag while opening the innings.
Sehwag’s innings is also the highest by an Indian against Australia on this ground along with Sachin Tendulkar’s unbeaten 155 in 1997-98.
Such was Sehwag’s dominance that he scored 66.62% of total runs while he was at the wicket ! In fact Sehwag holds the second place in terms of highest contribution to partnerships among all batsmen with at least 1,000 runs to their credit – well ahead of Don Bradman ! Sehwag’s career tally of 2,145 has come when 3,587 runs have been added to team’s total – a percentage of 59.79%. Only South Africa’s Roy McLean – with partnership percentage of 63.42% - is ahead of Sehwag.

Third Day:

Shane Warne (6-125) claimed his first five wicket innings haul against India in his 13th Test. His previous best was 4-47 at Mumbai WS in 2000-01. Warne has now taken a five-for against seven Test playing countries. He is yet to take a five-for against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
The wicket of Parthiv Patel was 300th for Shane Warne on foreign soil in 62nd Test. He became first bowler to do so. Incidentally West Indian Courtney Walsh holds the second place among the bowlers taking most wicket away from home with 290 wickets from 74 appearances.
Mohammad Kaif (64) playing in his fifth Test scored his maiden fifty. His previous highest was 37 against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2001.
The seventh wicket partnership of 102 runs between Kaif and Parthiv Patel is India’s best against Australia at home soil. The pair bettered the 95 run-partnership between Hemu Adhikari and GS Ramchand at Bombay WS in 1956-57. Incidentally this was only the third century partnership for India for seventh wicket against Australia in all matches –home or away- and second highest after 132 run-partnership between Vijay Hazare and Hemu Adhikari at Adelaide in 1947-48.
The Kaif-Patel partnership is also the highest seventh wicket partnership achieved on this ground. The pair expunged the 100 run-partnership between Alvin Kallicharran and Derick Parry for the West Indies in 1978-79.Incidentally the previous highest seventh wicket partnership for India on this ground was 93 between Polly Umrigar and CD Gopinath against England in 1951-52.
Anil Kumble claimed 10 wickets for the sixth time in a match. Already the holder of Indian record of most ten-wicket match hauls, Kumble now joins England’s Derek Underwood and Pakistan’s Imran Khan,who have also taken half a dozen 10-wicket match hauls. Now only Muttiah Muralitharan (13),Richard Hadlee (9),Shane Warne (8),Dennis Lillee (7), Clarrie Grimmett (7) and Syd Barnes (7) have taken 10-wickets in a match on more occasions than Kumble.
Interestingly in last three consecutive Tests against Australia Indian bowlers have taken ten-wicket match hauls. Anil Kumble himself returned the figures of 12 for 279 at Sydney in January this year, Harbhajan then claimed 11 for 224 in the first Test of this series at Bangalore….and now Kumble again.
Kumble is now the only non-Englishman to have taken a ten-wicket match haul against Australia – both at home and away.
Kumble has now taken exactly 250 wickets in 43 Tests at home. Only Muralitharan has taken more wickets than Kumble in home matches – 342 in 53. However Kumble’s strike rate of 54.97 is better than Murali’s 55.27 !

Fourth Day:

Damien Martyn (104) scored eighth century of his Test career in his 46th Test – his first against India. Martyn’s previous highest against India was unbeaten 66 at Brisbane in 2003-04.
Martyn became 15th batsman (on 16th occasion) to reach three-figure mark with a six against India when he cleared long-off boundary off Kumble to take his score from 96 to 102. Martyn became first Australian to do so against India. Kumble, at the other hand, was at the receiving end for the third time in his career.
Martyn also completed his 3,000 runs when his score reached 51. He became 29th Australian to reach this landmark.
The 139-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Damien Martyn and Jason Gillespie was the eighth (joint) highest partnership in Test cricket involving a nightwatchman. Interestingly Gillespie’s contribution was only 26 runs !
The wicket of Gillespie was the 50th for Harbhajan against Australia. It took him only seven Tests to reach this landmark. Harbhajan now holds the world record of taking 50 wickets against Australia in least number of Tests equalling England’s Tom Richardson’s record. The previous Indian record was held by another offie Erapally Prasanna, who did so in his ninth Test.
With the wicket of Kasprowicz, Kumble has become the leading wicket taker for India against Australia equalling Kapil Dev’s tally of 79 wickets. Kumble has done so taking 8 Tests and 342 balls lesser than Kapil.
Kumble (13-181) returned his second best match figures after his 14 for 149 against Pakistan at Delhi in 1998-99.
Kumble has now taken a dozen wickets in a Test on three occasions – most by an Indian. He was earlier at level with fellow teammate Harbhajan Singh and Vinoo Mankad with two such instances.
Kumble’s wicket tally at the end of this match stands at 415 – one more than Pakistan’s Wasim Akram. Kumble is now on the seventh spot among the leading wicket takers in Test cricket. The next two nearest targets for Kumble are Richard Hadlee(431) and Kapil Dev (434).
The 19 byes conceded by Parthiv Patel in second innings equals the worst performance by an Indian wicketkeeper against Australia. Nayan Mongia had also conceded 19 byes at Kolkata in 2000-01.
The 26 byes conceded by Patel in the match is a new record for an Indian wicketkeeper against Australia. The previous record was on the name of Nayan Mongia who conceded 25 byes in Kolkata match in 2000-01. Overall it was the fourth worst performance by an Indian wicketkeeper.
Patel has now allowed 20 or more byes in a match on three occasions in his short career of 18 Tests, which equals the tally of Farokh Engineer. Now only Nayan Mongia (6) is ahead of Patel for India.
The 46 extras conceded by India in Australia's second innings is a record for most extras in an innings in India-Australia Tests. Australia had conceded 45 extras In India's total of 517-5 at Bombay in 1986-87, while the previous highest extras conceded by India were 39 in Australia's 413 at Delhi in 1979-80.
India have successfully chased a fourth innings target of 200-plus only once at home. Interestingly that performance had come against Australia at Bombay Brabourne in 1964-65 when India reached 256 for 8 after being set a target of 253 in the fourth innings.

Fifth Day:

After 8 consecutive result oriented Tests, a match between India and Australia on Indian soil was drawn. The last drawn Test between India and Australia in India was contested way back in 1986 at Bombay's Wankhede Stadium.
Anil Kumble won his sixth Man of the Match award - his first against Australia. Interestingly all his six awards have come in India.
Kumble’s match figures of 13 for 181 are the fourth best in a DRAWN Test in cricket history. Only Englishmen Alec Bedser (14-99 v Australia at Nottingham in 1953), Syd Barnes (14-144 v South Africa at Durban in 1913-14) and Derek Underwood (13-71 v Pakistan at Lord’s in 1974) have returned better figures than Kumble.