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Home  » Cricket » Numbers game: No stopping Ashwin, Kohli

Numbers game: No stopping Ashwin, Kohli

By Rajneesh Gupta
November 23, 2016 10:51 IST
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Virat's 248 runs in the second Test, the highest by an Indian captain against England.
Ashwin, only the second Indian bowler to take 50 wickets in consecutive years.
Rajneesh Gupta looks at the numbers from the Vizag Test.

IMAGE: Virat Kohli, left, and Ravichandran Ashwin are all smiles after winning the second Test in Visakhapatnam. Photograph: BCCI

After escaping with a draw in the opening Test at Rajkot, India bounced back in style, thrashing England by 246 runs in the second game at Visakhapatnam to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

The Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA cricket stadium in Visakhapatnam became India's 24th Test venue and overall 111th venue in Test cricket.

India have played their last three consecutive Tests at new venues -- Indore, Rajkot and Visakhapatnam.

Two Indian batsmen completed 3,000 runs during the Test -- Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay.

By taking 67 innings to reach this landmark Pujara became one of the quickest Indians to achieve the feat.

Check out the fastest to 3,000 Test runs for India:

 

Innings

Virender Sehwag

55

Mohammad Azharuddin

64

Sunil Gavaskar

66

Gautam Gambhir

66

Sachin Tendulkar

67

Rahul Dravid

67

Cheteshwar Pujara

67

Ravichandran Ashwin

IMAGE: Ashwin appeals for a wicket during the second Test in Visakhapatnam. Photograph: BCCI

During England's first innings, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took his 50 wickets in Tests in the year, becoming the second bowler to do so after Sri Lankan left-arm spinner Rangana Herath.

Ashwin ended 2015 with 62 wickets.

He is only the second Indian bowler to take 50 wickets in consecutive years. Harbhajan Singh did so in 2001 and 2002.

Only two Indian bowlers have taken 50 wickets in a calendar year on more occasions than Ashwin.

50 Test wickets in a calendar year on most occasions for India:

Instances

Bowler

Year

3

Anil Kumble

1999, 2004, 2006

3

Harbhajan Singh

2001, 2002, 2008

2

Kapil Dev

1979, 1983

2

Ravichandran Ashwin

2015, 2016

1

Vinoo Mankad

1952

1

Bhagwat Chandrasekhar

1976

1

Zaheer Khan

2002

Kapil Dev holds the Indian record for most wickets in a year.

He took 75 wickets in 18 Tests in 1983.

With three Tests to go, Ashwin (62 wickets in 9 Tests) is in a good position to break Kapil's record.

50 Test wickets in a calendar year for India:

 

Year

Matches

Balls

Runs

Wickets

Average

5 Wickets in an Innings

10 Wickets in a Match

Kapil Dev

1983

18

3,469

1,739

75

23.18

5

1

Kapil Dev

1979

17

3,553

1,699

74

22.95

5

0

Anil Kumble

2004

12

3,680

1,838

74

24.83

6

2

Harbhajan Singh

2002

13

3,567

1,463

63

23.22

5

0

Harbhajan Singh

2008

13

4,230

1,987

63

31.53

2

1

Ravichandran Ashwin

2015

9

2,260

1,067

62

17.20

7

2

Harbhajan Singh

2001

12

3,424

1,557

60

25.95

6

2

Anil Kumble

2006

12

3,798

1,910

57

33.50

2

0

Ravichandran Ashwin

2016

9

2,441

1,223

55

22.24

6

2

Anil Kumble

1999

10

3,491

1,461

54

27.05

4

2

Bhagwat Chandrasekhar

1976

11

3,139

1,458

52

28.03

3

0

Vinoo Mankad

1952

9

3,302

1,106

51

21.68

5

2

Zaheer Khan

2002

15

2,875

1,479

51

29.00

2

0

Ashwin has taken 5 wicket hauls against all seven countries he has played a Test against. He is yet to play a Test against Pakistan and Bangladesh.

His 5/67 in the first innings in Vizag is his 22nd 5 wicket haul in Tests.

Only three Indians have taken more 5 wicket hauls than Ashwin.

Indian bowlers with most 5 wicket innings hauls in Tests:

 

5 Wickets in an Innings

Matches

Match/5WI

Anil Kumble

35

132

3.77

Harbhajan Singh

25

103

4.12

Kapil Dev

23

131

5.70

Ravichandran Ashwin

22

41

1.86

Bhagwat Chandrasekhar

16

58

3.63

Ashwin's 5 wicket haul supplemented his innings of 58 with the bat in India's first innings.

This was the 4th instance when Ashwin scored a 50 and took a 5-for in the same Test.

With this Ashwin equalled Kapil Dev's Indian record.

When Ashwin scored a 50 and took a 5 wickets in the same Test:

Performance

Vs

Venue

Season

103 and 5/156

West Indies

Mumbai

2011-2012

56 and 5/61

South Africa

Delhi

2015-2016

113 and 7/83

West Indies

North Sound

2016

58 and 5/67

England

Visakhapatnam

2016-2017

A 50 and a 5-for in the same Test for India on most occasions:

Instances

Player

Tests

4

Ravichandran Ashwin

41

4

Kapil Dev

131

2

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

15

England were bowled out for 255 in ther first innings -- exactly 200 runs behind India's first innings total.

Captain Virat Kohli opted against enforcing the follow. And not for the first time has he taken that decision. This was the third time Kohli did not enforce the follow-on despite being entitled to do so.

Interestingly, no other Indian captain has done so more than once!

Indian captains not enforcing the follow-on:

Opponent

Venue

Season

Lead

Captain

Result (for Ind)

New Zealand

Ahmedabad

1999-2000

275

Sachin Tendulkar

Drawn

Australia

Sydney

2003-2004

231

Sourav Ganguly

Drawn

England

The Oval

2007

319

Rahul Dravid

Drawn

Australia

Mohali

2008-2009

201

M S Dhoni

Won

South Africa

Delhi

2015-2016

213

Virat Kohli

Won

New Zealand

Indore

2016-2017

258

Virat Kohli

Won

England

Visakhapatnam

2016-2017

200

Virat Kohli

Won

IMAGE: Virat Kohli during the Vizag Test. Photograph: BCCI

Kohli added 81 to his first innings score of 167 -- taking his match tally to 248 -- the highest by an Indian captain against England.

This is also the fourth highest by an Indian captain in a Test against any opponent.

Most runs in a Test by an Indian captain:

Runs

Batsman

Innings1

Innings2

Versus

Venue

Season

289

Sunil Gavaskar

107

182*

West Indies

Kolkata

1978-1979

278

Sunil Gavaskar

205

73

West Indies

Mumbai

1978-1979

256

Virat Kohli

115

141

Australia

Adelaide

2014-2015

248

Virat Kohli

167

81

England

Visakhapatnam

2016-2017

232

Sachin Tendulkar

217

15

New Zealand

Ahmedabad

1999-2000

228

Virat Kohli

211

17

New Zealand

Indore

2016-2017

Kohli has a special liking for Visakhapatnam's Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA cricket stadium.

The Indian captain's lowest score at this venue in six innings in international cricket is 65.

Kohli's love affair with Visakhapatnam:

Runs

Vs

Year

Format

118

Australia

2010

ODI

117

West Indies

2011

ODI

99

West Indies

2013

ODI

65

New Zealand

2016

ODI

167 and 81

England

2016

Test

IMAGE: Jayant Yadav, 2nd right, celebrates after taking Ben Stokes' wicket. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

Jayant Yadav, courtesy of his innings of 35 and 27 not out, became the 1st number 9 batsman to score 25 or more runs in both innings on debut.

Jayant is only the third Indian player to score 50 runs and take four wickets in his debut Test, joining Amar Singh (56 and 4/159) against England at Lord's in 1932 and Syed Abid Ali (66 and 7/116) against Australia at Adelaide in 1967-1968.

Mohammad Shami, who in the first innings became the fourth Indian player to hit a six off the very first ball of his innings, hit a six in the second innings as well (though not off the very first ball!).

In doing so, he became the first Indian number 11 batsman to hit a six in both innings of a Test.

James Anderson suffered the ignominy of bagging a king pair (getting out on a duck to the first ball faced in both innings) in the Test.

The last England player to do so was Ernie Haynes against South Africa at Cape Town in 1905-1906.

Anderson became the fourth player to bag a king pair against India.

King pairs against India:

Player

Venue

Season

Bowler

Gary Troup (New Zealand)

Wellington

1980-1981

Ravi Shastri

Adam Gilchrist (Australia)

Kolkata

2000-2001

Harbhajan Singh/Sachin Tendulkar

Javed Omar (Bangladesh)

Mirpur

2007

Zaheer Khan

James Anderson (England)

Visakhapatnam

2016-2017

Ravinchandran Ashwin/Jayant Yadav

Anderson aggregates 21 ducks in his Test career -- more than anyone else for England.

He moved ahead of Michael Atherton, Steve Harmison, Monty Panesar and Stuart Broad.

Anderson also holds the record of playing most (54) innings before his first duck for England!

The 10 LBW dismissals (5 in each innings) are the most for England in a Test.

The previous record was 9 against the West Indies at Lord's in 1984 and against Pakistan at Abu Dhabi in 2011-2012.

Ashwin's tally of 231 wickets is now the highest for any bowler after his first 41 Tests.

The previous Indian record was 185 held by Harbhajan Singh.

Most wickets after first 41 Tests:

 

Wickets

Average

Strike Rate

5 Wickets in an Innings

10 Wickets in the Match

Ravichandran Ashwin (India)

231

24.65

50.50

22

6

Clarrie Grimmett (Australia)+

216

24.22

67.19

21

7

Waqar Younis (Pakistan)

216

21.08

39.27

19

4

Dale Steyn (South Africa)

211

23.13

39.21

14

4

Dennis Lillee (Australia)

209

24.27

52.86

15

5

Ian Botham (England)

202

21.21

48.06

17

4

Stuart MacGill (Australia)

200

27.65

52.56

12

2

+ Clarrie Grimmett played only 37 Tests.

India's victory margin of 246 runs is its biggest against England at home and second biggest in all Tests.

The defeat was also England's biggest ever in a Test in Asia.

India's biggest Test wins versus England (by run margin):

Margin

Venue

Season

Captain

279 runs

Leeds

1986

Kapil Dev

246 runs

Visakhapatnam

2016-2017

Virat Kohli

187 runs

Kolkata

1961-1962

Nari Contractor

140 runs

Bangalore

1976-1977

Bishen Singh Bedi

138 runs

Mumbai

1981-1982

Sunil Gavaskar

India have now played 15 consecutive Tests without losing a single one!

Its last defeat came against Sri Lanka at Galle in August 2015.

This is India's second longest winning streak ever.

The longest is 17 Tests between 1985 and 1987.

India's longest winning streaks:

Tests

Won

Drawn

Span

17

4

13

1985-1987

15*

10

5

2012-2016

15

4

11

1979-1980

14

9

5

1993-1994

14

8

6

2008-2010

13

2

11

1953-1956

 

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Rajneesh Gupta

India In Australia 2024-2025