Mohali Test, India v England, statistical highlights
- Munaf Patel and Piyush Chawla made their Test debut. They became the 254th and 255th players to represent India in Test cricket.
- At 17 years 75 days Piyush Chawla became the second youngest to appear in a Test for India. Only Sachin Tendulkar (aged 16 years 205 days) has played a Test at a younger age for India. In all Test cricket, Chawla became the 16th youngest player to make debut.
- A total of five Patels have now represented India in Test cricket. They are: Jasu, Brijesh, Rashid, Parthiv and now Munaf.
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- The average age of the England side was 26 years 102 days on the first day of the match, which made it the youngest England side ever to take the field. Flintoff's XI took the record from Ivo Bligh's side that played against Australia at Melbourne in 1882-83.
- Sachin Tendulkar was playing his 131st Test. He thus equalled Kapil Dev's record of playing most Tests for India.
- India went into the Test with five specialist bowlers. This was the first such instance for India in a home Test since the Nagpur Test against Zimbabwe in November 2000, when India fielded Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Sarandeep Singh and Sunil Joshi. That match ended in a draw.
Anil Kumble's wicket of Ian Bell in the first innings was his 47th bowled dismissal at home -- a new Indian record. He was earlier at level with Kapil Dev, with 46 such dismissals.
- Kumble became the first Indian and only the fifth bowler in Test cricket history to reach the 500-wicket mark when he had Steve Harmison plumb in front on the third day. Kumble joined the exclusive club of Walsh, Warne, Muralitharan and McGrath.
- Andrew Flintoff's two sixes in the first innings took his career-tally of sixes to 68, which is the highest for an England batsman. Flintoff moved ahead of Ian Botham, who had hit 67 Tests in 102 Tests (Flintoff was playing his only 58th Test). Incidentally, the record of most sixes in a Test career is held by Chris Cairns and Adam Gilchrist.
- The 103-run partnership between Flintoff and Geraint Jones was the fourth century partnership between this pair -- most by any pair for England for the sixth wicket. The pair equalled the tally of Tony Greig and Alan Knott. In fact, only one pair -- Steve Waugh and Ian Healy has been involved in more century-partnerships for the sixth wicket than this pair (six in 54 innings). The West Indian pair of Gus Logie and Jeff Dujon and Australian pair of Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist have also been involved in four century partnerships apiece.
- Geraint Jones completed 1,000 runs in Test cricket when his score reached 34. He became 39th wicketkeeper overall and eighth from England to reach this landmark.
- Rahul Dravid's 95 in the first innings was his ninth score in the nineties. He thus moved to the second place in the list of batsmen with most scores in the 90s equalling Australia's Michael Slater's tally. Now only Steve Waugh with ten such scores is ahead of Dravid. Just for the record, Dravid is heads and shoulders above the other Indian batsmen. Sachin Tendulkar with six such scores is the distant second.
- Andrew Flintoff batted on each of the five days of the Test -- a very rare occurrence indeed. Flintoff ended the day one with an unbeaten 4 and was still unbeaten on 26 at the end of rain-curtailed second day, when only 14.3 overs were bowled in the day. On the third day he was dismissed on 70 in England's first innings total of 300. India batted thereafter and were dismissed for 338 on the fourth day after lunch. A batting collapse forced Flintoff's entry to the crease towards the closing stages of the fourth day and he remained unbeaten on 16 at the close of play. On the fifth and final day Flintoff took his score to 51 and was the final England wicket to fall. The feat of batting on each day of a Test (of at least five days' duration) has been achieved only five times before. Others to do so are: India's M L Jaisimha vs Australia at Calcutta in 1959-60, England's Geoff Boycott vs Australia at Nottingham in 1977, Australia's Kim Hughes vs England at Lord's in 1980, England's Allan Lamb vs West Indies at Lord's in 1984 and India's Ravi Shastri vs England at Calcutta in 1984-85.
- Dravid, by getting involved in unbroken 105 run-partnership with Sehwag for the second wicket, equalled an Indian record. This was the 59th century partnership in which Dravid was involved in. It puts him level with Sachin Tendulkar and ahead of Sunil Gavaskar. In fact, there are only two batsmen -- Australia's Steve Waugh (64) and Allan Border (63) -- who have participated in more century partnerships. West Indies' Brian Lara also has his name involved in 59 century partnerships.
- Munaf Patel's match figures of 7 for 97 are the best figures by an Indian paceman on debut. The previous record was held by Syed Abid Ali, who returned the figures of 7 for 116 against Australia at Adelaide in 1967-68.
- Among all bowlers (including the spinners) Munaf's figures are the fourth best by an Indian debutant after Narendra Hirwani (16-136 v West Indies at Madras in 1987-88), Dilip Doshi (8-167 v Australia at Madras in 1979-80) and Shivlal Yadav (7-81 v Australia at Bangalore in 1979-80.
Kumble has now taken his tally of wickets in HOME wins to 201 (in 27 games). He is the first Indian and only the fourth bowler after Glenn McGrath (228 in 48), Shane Warne (227 in 44) and Muttiah Muralitharan (211 in 24). Among the four, only Muraliatharan has a better strike-rate and economy-rate than Kumble.
- India have now won both their Tests against England at Mohali. They had beaten the visitors by 10 wickets in 2001-02.
- This was India's fourth Test victory under Rahul Dravid in 12 matches. The earlier ones were against Pakistan (at Multan in 2003-04), Australia (at Mumbai in 2004-05) and Sri Lanka (at Delhi in 2005-06).
- This was India's 17th victory against England -- 13th at home.
- Kumble has now won eight Man of the Match awards, equalling Kapil Dev and Rahul Dravid's tally. Only Sachin Tendulkar (10) has won more Man of the Match awards for India.
