Harbhajan emulates Kapil
Mohandas Menon
** Harbhajan Singh emulated Kapil Dev by hitting a six to win a Test for
India. Kapil had achieved the similar feat against England at Lord's off the
bowling of left-arm spinner Phil Edmonds in 1986.
** The 16 wickets in two Tests by Anil Kumble was the maximum by an
Indian bowler in a series against Zimbabwe obliterating the previous best of
12 wickets by Javagal Srinath during the last home series in 2000.
** The match aggregate of seven runs in two innings by Rahul Dravid (1 &
6) was his worst performance during his entire career spanning 55 matches
since 1996. His previous worst match run aggregate was 8 runs (2 & 6)
against Sri Lanka at the Sinhalese Sport Club ground, Colombo in August
1998.
** The ten wickets in the series by left-arm spinner Ray Price equals the
tally of fellow teammate Heath Streak - the maximum by a Zimbabwe bowler in
a series against India. However, Price's 10 wickets was the maximum taken by
a Zimbabwe spin bowler in a Test series away from home.
** Interestingly, his tally of 10 wickets in this series is one of the
best by a visiting left-arm spinner in India. Visiting left-arm spinners
does not seem to be successful in picking up wickets on Indian soil. In the
last 69 years in 51 Test series since 1933 - the only visiting left-arm
spinners to capture 10 or more wickets in a series in India are: England's
Jim Langridge ((10 wickets in 3 matches in 1933-34), New Zealand's Hedley
Howarth (12 wickets in 3 in 1969), Pakistani Iqbal Qasim - has done it twice
(17 wickets in 6 matches in 1979-80 and 12 wickets in 3 in 1986-87) and New
Zealander Daniel Vettori (12 in 3 in 1999). Price thus becomes the only
fifth visiting left-arm spinner to take 10 or more wickets in a Test series.
** This was India's fifth win over Zimbabwe in 9 matches. However, this
was India's first back to back win over this team in Tests.
** The four-wicket defeat was Zimbabwe's second narrowest against any
team after its loss by three wickets against Pakistan at Harare in March
1998.
** This was Zimbabwe's fifth loss in a row. It had lost in Sri Lanka
three-nil in December-January this year. This is now Zimbabwe's worst loss
sequence in Tests. The team had earlier lost four Tests in a row on two
occasions - from November 1992 to December 1993 and from January-February
1998.
** The Feroz Shah Kotla ground is proving to be the home team's happy
hunting ground. Since its loss to the West Indies in November 1987, India
has now won five Test matches in a row - against Zimbabwe in March 1993 (by
an innings & 13 runs), Australia in October 1996 (by 7 wickets), Pakistan
in February 1999 (by 212 runs), Zimbabwe in November 2000 (by 7 wickets) and
this one by four wickets.