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Statistical Highlights, Day 1

By Rajneesh Gupta
December 18, 2004 11:28 IST

First Test, Day 1: Match report | Images | Scorecard

-  Nazmul Hossain, became the 40th player from Bangladesh to play Test cricket. At 17 years 73 days he is the fourth youngest to appear in a Test for Bangladesh after Mohammed Sharif,Talha Jubair and Mohammad Ashraful.

-  Nazmul was, in fact, also making his first-class debut. He thus became only the second Bangladeshi to make his first-class and Test debut in the same match after Mashrafe Mortaza.

-  Nazmul is the third player to make his first-class and Test debut in the same match against India. The other two are New Zealander Graham Vivian (at Kolkata in 1964-65) and Zimbabwean Ujesh Ranchod (at Delhi in 1992-93).

-  Rahul Dravid (145*) emulated Australia's Steve Waugh, South Africa's Gary Kirsten and fellow teammate Sachin Tendulkar in scoring at least a century against all other 9 Test playing countries.

-  Dravid, however, became the first batsman in Test annals to have recorded hundreds in all the ten Test-playing countries. This is how Dravid has performed in different countries:

100s

Location

Tests

Inns

Runs

Hs

Ave

6

in India

39

67

3010

222

50.17

3

in England

6

9

789

217

87.67

2

in New Zealand

4

8

452

190

64.57

1

in West Indies

10

15

764

144*

63.67

1

in Australia

7

14

712

233

64.73

1

in Sri Lanka

6

10

419

107

46.56

1

in South Africa

5

10

379

148

42.11

1

in Pakistan

3

4

309

270

77.25

1

in Zimbabwe

3

5

300

118

75.00

1

in Bangladesh

3

4

214

145*

107.00

18

TOTAL

86

146

7348

270

57.85

-  Another remarkable feature of Dravid's career is his awesome 'away' performance. He is among the very few batsmen who have better batting average in away Tests -- in fact a remarkable 14 points more than his average in home Tests! Dravid has scored his runs on foreign soil at an average of 64.74, which is the highest among all the contemporary batsmen. In alltime list, Dravid is placed fifth after Don Bradman, England's Ken Barrington, Eddie Paynter and Wally Hammond. The details:

Ave

Batsman

For

Tests

Inns

Runs

HS

100

102.85

DG Bradman

Aus

19

30

2674

334

11

69.18

KF Barrington

Eng

36

58

3459

172

14

67.15

E Paynter

Eng

10

15

873

243

3

66.33

WR Hammond

Eng

41

72

4245

336*

13

64.74

R Dravid

Ind

47

79

4338

270

12

63.22

A Melville

SA

5

10

569

189

3

62.40

WH Ponsford

Aus

10

16

936

266

3

-  Gautam Gambhir (139) scored his maiden century in Test Cricket. His previous highest was 96 against South Africa at Kanpur last month.

-  The second wicket partnership of 259 runs between Dravid and Gambhir is India's best against Bangladesh for any wicket. The pair obliterated the 164-run partnership between Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly in the Dhaka Test last week. Incidentally India's previous highest second wicket partnership against Bangladesh was 53 (unbroken) between Shiv Sunder Das and Rahul Dravid at Dhaka in November 2000.

-  The Gambhir-Dravid partnership is India's highest for the second wicket abroad. This expunges the 237-run partnership between Pankaj Roy and Vijay Manjrekar against West Indies at Kingston in 1952-53.

-  India became only the second side after Australia to post 200-plus partnerships against all other 9 Test playing countries.

Rajneesh Gupta

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