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Statistical highlights, second Test

June 17, 2006 19:48 IST

By Rajneesh Gupta

Virender Sehwag (180) scored his 12th hundred in his 47th Test -- his second in five Tests against West Indies.

Sehwag raced to his fifty off just 33 balls, which is the joint second fastest fifty by an Indian batsman in Test cricket after Kapil Dev's 30-ball fifty against Pakistan at Karachi in 1982-83. The following table has the details:

Balls	Batsman	Opponent	Venue	Season
30	Kapil Dev (73)	Pakistan	Karachi	1982-83
33	Kapil Dev (65)	England	Manchester	1982
33	Kapil Dev (59)	Pakistan	Karachi	1978-79
35	M Azharuddin (109)	South Africa	Calcutta	1996-97
33	Harbhajan Singh (54)	England	Nottingham	2002
33	Virender Sehwag (180)	West Indies	Gros Islet	2006

The 33-ball fifty by Sehwag is also the fastest by any batsman against West Indies surpassing New Zealand's Bruce Taylor's 36-ball fifty at Auckland in 1968-69.

Sehwag needed 78 balls to reach the three-figure mark, which is the third fastest hundred by an Indian in Test cricket behind Kapil Dev and Mohammad Azharuddin, who each took 74 balls for their hundreds against Sri Lanka in 1986-87 and South Africa in 1996-97. The details:

Balls	Batsman	Opponent	Venue	Season
74	Kapil Dev (163)	Sri Lanka	Kanpur	1986-87
74	M Azharuddin (109)	South Africa	Calcutta	1996-97
78	V Sehwag (180)	West Indies	Gros Islet	2006
86	Kapil Dev (116)	England	Kanpur	1981-82
87	M Azharuddin (121)	England	Lord's	1990
93	V Sehwag (254)	Pakistan	Lahore	2005-06
93	MS Dhoni (148)	Pakistan	Faisalabad	2005-06

This is also the fastest hundred by any batsman against West Indies. Pakistan's Shahid Afridi had also taken 78 balls for his hundred in Bridgetown Test in 2005.

Sehwag's hundred is also the fastest by an Indian opener and third fastest in Test history as shown in the following table:

Balls	Batsman	Countries	Venue	Season
71	RC Fredericks (169)	WI v Aus	Perth	1975-76
74	Majid Khan (112)	Pak v NZ	Karachi	1976-77
78	V Sehwag (180 )	Ind v WI	St. Lucia	2006
79	CH Gayle (116)	WI v SA	Cape Town	2003-04
79	CH Gayle (105)	WI v Eng	The Oval	2004
84	ML Hayden (101*)	Aus v Zim	Sydney	2003-04

Sehwag scored 99 runs (off 75 balls) before lunch on the opening day. He thus missed the opportunity to score a hundred before lunch on the first day of a Test -- a feat hitherto achieved by only four batsmen. Sehwag's performance is easily the best by an Indian. Farokh Engineer had made 94 before lunch against West Indies at Madras in 1966-67.

Runs	Batsman	Countries	Venue	Season
112	Charles Macartney	Aus v Eng	Leeds	1926
108	Majid Khan	Pak v NZ	Karachi	1976-77
105	Don Bradman	Aus v Eng	Leeds	1930
103	Victor Trumper	Aus v Eng	Manchester	1902
99	Virender Sehwag	Ind v WI	Gros Islet	2006

The two sixes took Sehwag's career tally of sixes to 41, which puts him at par with Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. Only Kapil Dev (61) has hit more sixes in Test cricket for India.

The first wicket partnership of 159 runs between Wasim Jaffer and Virender Sehwag is India's best for this wicket against West Indies in West Indies, obliterating the 136-run partnership between Sunil Gavaskar and Anshuman Gaekwad at Kingston in 1975-76.

India's first day's score of 361 (for the loss of four wickets) is their second highest score on the opening day of a Test after 372 for seven against South Africa at Bloemfontein in 1996-97.

Rahul Dravid's innings of 146 is the highest by an Indian captain in the Caribbean obliterating Kapil Dev's unbeaten 100 at Port-of-Spain in 1982-83.

When his score reached 97, Rahul Dravid completed his 5,000 runs in away matches - third Indian after Sachin Tendulkar (5,552 runs in 72 Tests) and Sunil Gavaskar (5,055 runs in 60 Tests) and seventh batsman in the world to do so. Dravid's average of 64.73 is the highest among all the seven.

Dravid also became the seventh player to aggregate 1,000 runs as Indian captain after Sunil Gavaskar (3,449 runs in 47 Tests), Mohammad Azharuddin (2,856 in 47), Sourav Ganguly (2,561 in 49), Nawab of Pataudi (2,424 in 40), Sachin Tendulkar (2,054 in 25) and Kapil Dev (1,364 in 34).

Dravid took his run-aggregate in the year 2006 to 807 in 8 Tests - highest for any batsman ahead of Ricky Ponting, who has aggregated 802 runs in 6 Tests this year.

The wicket of Yuvraj Singh gave Pedro Collins his 100th victim in his 30th Test. He became 17th West Indian bowler to do so.

Mohammad Kaif (148*) scored his maiden hundred in his 11th Test, six years after making his Test debut. His previous highest was 91 against England at Nagpur earlier this year.

Kaif's strike-rate of 60.90 is the best of his career in an innings of 10 or more.

India became only the second side to post 500-plus totals in two successive innings against West Indies in West Indies. South Africa is the only other side to do so (548-9d at Bridgetown and 588-6d at St. John's in 2004-05).

Sehwag, Dravid and Kaif provided only the third instance of three Indian batsmen scoring hundreds in the same innings against West Indies - first such instance in West Indies. The other such occasions were at Delhi and at Kanpur - both in 1978-79 series.

India's total of 588 for eight declared is their highest against West Indies in West Indies obliterating the 521 for six declared in the first Test of this series at St. John's.

India's run-rate of 3.96 is the second highest for a team posting 500-plus total in the Caribbean. During their innings of 576-4d at Port-of-Spain in 2002-03 Australia had achieved the run-rate of 4.34, which still remains the highest.

The run-rate is also the highest for India in an innings of 500 or more in a Test away from the sub-continent. During their innings of 705-7d against Australia at Sydney in 2003-04 India had made their runs at a rate of 3.76 runs per over.

When Kumble succeeded in getting a LBW decision against Lara in the first innings, it was the fourth time he was dismissing the master batsman. With this Kumble equalled Venkatapathy Raju's Indian record of dismissing Lara on most occasions.

The wicket of Dwayne Bravo in the first innings was 520th for Anil Kumble, which made him the fourth most successful bowler in Test cricket surpassing Courtney Walsh's tally of 519. Now only Shane Warne (685), Muttiah Muralitharan (635) and Glenn McGrath (540) have taken more wickets than Kumble.

When Dravid asked his counterpart Lara to bat again, he became only the second Indian captain after Ajit Wadekar (at Kingston in 1970-71) to enforce follow-on on West Indies in West Indies. Overall it was the 25th instance of an Indian captain imposing follow-on on the opponents - seventh in an away Test.

This was also the seventh time West Indies were facing the embarrassment of following-on in a home Test - thrice against England, twice against Australia and India each.

Chris Gayle, the top scorer for West Indies in both innings of St. John's Test, was dismissed twice on the third day (Gayle was the first wicket to fall in the day and also the last! He became only the third West Indian batsman to suffer the ignominy of getting out twice on the same day against India. Roy Fredericks and Steve Camacho are the others to do so (at Kingston in 1970-71).

Lara (120) scored 32nd hundred of his career - his second against India. This puts him at third place in the list of leading centurions in Test cricket at level with Steve Waugh and ahead of Ricky Ponting (31). Only Sachin Tendulkar (35) and Sunil Gavaskar (34) have scored more hundreds than Lara.

Lara also equalled Australia's Matthew Hayden's tally of 17 hundreds at home soil. Only Don Bradman (18) has scored more.

The draw means all the three Tests played at Gros Islet have failed to produce a result.

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