Stats Highlights, Aus v Ind, 4th Test, Day 1

First Published : 24 Jan 2012, 01:25
Last Modified : 24 Jan 2012, 19:55

By: Rajneesh Gupta

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Adelaide, Jan 24: Ricky Ponting has done what only two batsmen have in the history of Test cricket – cross the 13,000-run mark. With his 41^st Test ton, the former Australia captain became the highest hundred-scorer in Tests at home. Current skipper Michael Clarke joined the party in Adelaide, scoring his 19^th Test century and aggregating 1000 runs as captain along the way. The partnership between the top two cricketers stood at 251 at stumps, sounding an ominous note for the visitors. Take a look at the numbers that matter from Day 1 at Adelaide.

• Wriddhiman Saha made a comeback to the Indian team after a gap of 23 months. His only other Test appearance was against South Africa at Nagpur in February 2010 when VVS Laxman failed to recover from injury and his replacement, Rohit Sharma, injured himself playing football in the warm-up on the morning of the Test.

• This was Virender Sehwag’s fourth assignment as India captain in his Test career

• Shaun Marsh failed with the bat once again. His scores in the series read: 0 & 3 (at Melbourne), 0 (at Sydney), 11 (at Perth) & 3 (at Adelaide); 17 runs @ 3.40

• On 71, Ricky Ponting (137*) became the leading run-scorer against India, surpassing West Indies’ Clive Lloyd’s tally of 2344 runs. At the end of the day Ponting had taken his tally against India to 2411 from 29 Tests and 50 innings.

• On 81, Ponting completed 13,000 runs in Test cricket. He became the third batsman to reach this landmark after India’s Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.

• The hundred was Ponting’s ...
  • 75^th in first-class cricket
  • 41^st of his Test career
  • 23^rd in Australia
  • 8^th vs India
  • 6^th at Adelaide
  • 2^nd in 2012

• Ponting now equals Garry Sobers and Viv Richards’ joint record for scoring eight centuries against India.

• Ponting has now scored a hundred in each of his four Tests at Adelaide against India. He scored 125 in 1999-00, 242 in 2003-04, 140 in 2007-08 and now 137* in 2011-12.

• Ponting has now scored the most hundreds in Tests at home, moving ahead of India’s Sachin Tendulkar and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis, each of whom has scored 22 hundreds at home.

• Michael Clarke (140*), on 35, completed 1,000 runs as captain. He became the 13^th captain to aggregate 1,000 runs for Australia.

• Clarke took only 19 innings to complete 1,000 runs as captain. Among the Australians only Don Bradman (11), Greg Chappell (15) and Bill Lawry (18) have accomplished this feat in fewer innings.

• The hundred was Clarke’s ...
  • 35^th in first-class cricket
  • 19^th of his Test career
  • 11^th in Australia
  • 5^th vs India
  • 5^th as captain
  • 4^th at Adelaide

• Clarke has now aggregated 519 runs in the series – his most productive Test series ever. He had aggregated 448 runs in five Tests against England in England in 2009.

• Incidentally, Clarke is the ninth captain to aggregate 500 runs in a series against India. The others to do so for Australia are Don Bradman (715 runs in 1947-48), Kim Hughes (594 runs in 1979-80) and Bob Simpson (539 runs in 1977-78).

• The 251-run unbroken partnership between Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke is the second 200-plus partnership for this pair in the series. These two had added 288 runs at Sydney.

• The Ponting-Clarke partnership is the fourth 200-plus partnership for Australia in this series. Apart from two 200-plus partnerships by the Ponting-Clarke pair, Clarke and Mike Hussey had put on 334 runs for the fifth wicket without being separated at Sydney. Ed Cowan and David Warner had added 214 runs for the opening wicket at Perth.

• Ponting and Clarke have now added 1975 runs in 29 innings at 73.14.

• India became the first team to concede three partnerships of 250-plus in a series.