Stats Highlights, Ind v NZ, 1st Test, Day 2
First Published : 24 Aug 2012, 19:20
Last Modified : 24 Aug 2012, 19:20
Hyderabad, August 24: Resuming on their overnight total of 307 for five, India continued to pile on the runs against the New Zealand attack. While Cheteshwar Pujara’s 159 was the highlight of the Indian innings, even skipper MS Dhoni registered his 20th half-century as captain. Thanks to Pujara and Dhoni's efforts, and even a 37-run contribution by R Ashwin, the hosts were able to post 438 on the board in their first innings.
Already on the back foot, the Kiwis were further cornered by the spin duo of Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha and were reduced to 106 for five at the end of Day 2 of the first Test. With a lot more action still in store during the remainder of this match, here are some interesting statistical milestones that were crossed today:
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Cheteshwar Pujara’s innings of 159 is the second highest by any Indian batsman in his first innings against New Zealand, after Polly Umrigar’s 223 at Hyderabad LBS in 1955-56.
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Out of Pujara’s 15 hundreds in first-class cricket, eight scores are in excess of 150, including one triple hundred and two double hundreds.
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MS Dhoni (73) made his 20th score of 50 or more as captain. Only Sunil Gavaskar (25) has more such scores for India.
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Zaheer Khan recorded his 26th duck in Test cricket – his fifth against New Zealand. Incidentally, Zaheer’s 26 ducks are the most by an Indian batsman in Test cricket. Only five batsmen have recorded more ducks than him in Test cricket – Courtney Walsh (43), Glenn McGrath (35), Shane Warne (34), Muttiah Muralitharan (33) and Chris Martin (33). Two other players – Curtly Ambrose and Mervyn Dillon – have also recorded 26 ducks.
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Zaheer has now achieved the dubious distinction of aggregating most ducks in India-New Zealand Tests, moving ahead of Paul Wiseman’s tally of four.
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With this duck, Zaheer also equalled the record of aggregating most ducks in a Test career against New Zealand, joining the ranks of Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan and Bangladesh’s Mohammad Ashraful, who have also got five ducks against the Kiwis.
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This was Zaheer’s 10th duck on Indian soil – the most by any player. He moved ahead of Bishan Singh Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Mohinder Amarnath, Javagal Srinath and Harbhajan Singh, who have aggregated nine ducks each on Indian soil.
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R Ashwin has now scored more than 300 runs and taken more than 30 wickets in just his seven Tests. He is the quickest Indian to do so. Salim Durrani was the previous fastest to reach this mark, having taken nine Tests to achieve this feat.
- India have never lost a Test against any opponent after posting 425-plus runs in first innings of a Test.
