Sydney, Jan 31: Along the way to the 4-0 whitewash, Australia achieved plenty of feats individually and as a team. Clarke scored a whopping triple-ton in Sydney; David Warner blazed to a lightning hundred at Perth; while Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke put up a glorious stand at Adelaide. India’s moments of glory were few and far between. What makes the scoreline even more poignant for the visitors is that this is their second worst streak of overseas Test losses ever. Here are the highlights for a series Australia will cherish for a long time to come.
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The first Test at Melbourne was Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th international match against Australia (including 32 Tests and 68 ODIs). Sachin thus provided the fourth instance of a player making 100 international appearances against a particular opponent. The other instances are: Sanath Jayauriya (105 matches v Pakistan), Sachin Tendulkar (104 matches v Sri Lanka), Sanath Jayasuriya (103 matches v India).
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Sachin Tendulkar achieved the rare distinction of playing Test cricket against a father-son pair by taking the field against Shaun Marsh at Melbourne. He had played four Tests against his father Geoff in 1991-92 which was the latter’s last Test series. Sachin is the first Indian to play a Test against a father-son pair.
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With the wicket of Peter Siddle at Melbourne, Zaheer Khan completed 50 Test wickets against Australia. He became the seventh Indian to do so after Anil Kumble (111), Harbhajan Singh (90), Kapil Dev (79), Erapally Prasanna (57), Bishan Bedi (56) and Shivlal Yadav (55).
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Virender Sehwag completed 8,000 runs in Test cricket at Melbourne. He became the fifth Indian and 23rd batsmen in Test history to do so.
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Rahul Dravid completed 2,000 runs against Australia at Melbourne. He became the third Indian batsman to do so after Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman.
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Sachin Tendulkar’s 73 in the first innings of Melbourne Test was his 64th Test fifty, which hands him the world record for scoring most fifties in a Test career. He went ahead of Australia’s Allan Border’s, and fellow teammate Rahul Dravid’s, tally of 63.
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At Melbourne, Dravid and Tendulkar became the first pair to be involved in 20 century partnerships in Test cricket.
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Brad Haddin, playing his 40th Test (at Melbourne), completed 150 wicketkeeping dismissals when he caught nightwatchman Ishant Sharma off the bowling of Ben Hilfenhaus. He became the fifth Australian to do so after Adam Gilchrist (416), Ian Healy (395), Rod Marsh (355) and Wally Grout (187).
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The second Test at Sydney Cricket Ground was the 100th at this ground. It became only the third ground after Melbourne and Lord’s to host 100 Test matches.
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Peter Siddle completed 100 Test wickets with the dismissal of Umesh Yadav at Sydney. He became the 34th Australian to do so.
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At Sydney, Michael Clarke (329*) became the 21st batsman to score a triple-century in Test cricket. It was the 25th triple-century in Test cricket, the seventh for Australia and third by any batsman against India.
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Clarke’s innings was the highest by a No. 5 batsman in Test cricket, beating Don Bradman’s 304 made against England at Leeds in 1934. It was also the highest innings by any batsman in India-Australia Tests.
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The unbroken 334-run partnership between Clarke and Michael Hussey at Sydney was Australia’s highest partnership for any wicket against India. The pair bettered the 288-run fourth-wicket partnership involving Ponting and Clarke earlier in the innings. Incidentally, Australia’s previous highest fifth-wicket partnership against India was 239 between Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting at Adelaide in 1999-00.
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India went into the Perth Test with four medium pacers – Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and R Vinay Kumar. The last time India had four pacers in their line-up was way back in 1991-92 when Kapil Dev, Manoj Prabhakar, Javagal Srinath and Subroto Banerjee played against Australia at Sydney.
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David Warner reached his hundred off just 69 balls at Perth – the fastest hundred by an Australian, the fastest against India and joint fourth fastest in Test history. Only West Indies’ Viv Richards (56 balls against England at St. John's in 1985-86), Australia's Adam Gilchrist (57 balls against England at Perth in 2006-07), and Jack Gregory (67 balls against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1921-22) have scored faster hundreds in Test cricket. West Indies’ S Chanderpaul had also recorded a 69-ball hundred against Australia at Georgetown in 2002-03.
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The previous fastest hundred against India was made by South Africa’s AB de Villiers – off 75 balls at Centurion in 2010-11.The previous fastest hundred for Australia against India was by Adam Gilchrist who took 84 balls to score his hundred at Mumbai in 2000-01.
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Warner’s hundred is also the fastest by an opener in Test cricket, beating West Indies’ Chris Gayle’s 70-ball hundred against Australia at this very ground in 2009-10.
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Warner also became the 21st Australian batsman (on the 32nd occasion) to score a hundred in one session. Incidentally, he is only the second to do so against India after Don Bradman who had made 107 runs between tea and the close of first day’s play at Adelaide in 1947-48.
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By getting out bowled twice in the Perth Test, Rahul Dravid achieved the dubious distinction of most bowled dismissals by any batsman in Test history. Dravid went ahead of Australia’s Allan Border’s tally of 53 bowleds.
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Zaheer Khan’s first-ball duck in the second innings of Perth Test was his 24th duck. He now holds the dubious distinction for most ducks by an Indian in Test cricket. Zaheer surpassed Bhagwat Chandrasekhar’s tally of 23 ducks.
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Virat Kohli top-scored for India in both the innings (44 out of 161 & 75 out of 171). At 23 years 71 days, he became the third youngest Indian to perform this feat after Sunil Gavaskar and Lala Amarnath.
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During his innings of 221 at Adelaide, Ricky Ponting became the leading run-scorer against India, surpassing West Indies’ Clive Lloyd’s tally of 2344 runs.
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Ricky Ponting completed 13,000 runs in Test cricket at Adelaide. He became the third batsman to reach this landmark after India’s Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.
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The hundred at Adelaide was Ponting’s 23rd in a home Test – the most by any batsman. He moved ahead of India’s Sachin Tendulkar and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis, each of whom has scored 22 hundreds at home.
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Michael Clarke completed 1,000 runs as captain at Adelaide. He became the 13th captain to aggregate 1,000 runs for Australia.
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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.
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The 386-run partnership between Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke at Adelaide is the highest partnership for any wicket in Australia-India Tests. This obliterated the 376-run stand between VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid for the fifth wicket at Kolkata in 2000-01.
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R Ashwin conceded 194 runs in 53 overs while picking up three wickets at Adelaide. These are the most expensive figures by any Indian bowler against Australia. Anil Kumble had conceded 176 runs in the first innings of the Melbourne Test in 2003-04 (while taking six wickets).
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Rahul Dravid (Adelaide, first innings) was dismissed bowled for the sixth time in the series. With this he equalled the Indian record for most bowled dismissals in a series. Chandu Sarwate (in Australia in 1947-48), Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (v England in 1975-76) and Anshuman Gaekwad (v West Indies in 1983-84) are the other Indians to be dismissed bowled six times in a series.
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Shaun Marsh ended the series with 17 runs in six innings keeping an average of 2.83. His average is the third worst by a top-order batsman in a Test series (min. 5 innings). India’s Mohinder Amarnath averaged 0.16 (one run in six innings) against West Indies in 1983-84. New Zealand’s Ken Rutherford averaged 1.71 (12 runs in seven innings) against West Indies in 1984-85.
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When Michael Clarke declared the second innings at Adelaide, having declared the first innings too, he became the second Australian captain to do so against India after Allan Border who declared at 574 for seven in the first innings and 170 for five at Madras in 1986-87. That Test ended in a thrilling tie.
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For the fifth time in their cricketing history, India lost all the Tests of a series of four or more matches. The previous instances are: in 1959 in England (five Tests), in 1961-62 in the West Indies (also five), in 1967-68 in Australia (four), in 2011 in England (four).
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The string of eight consecutive defeats is India’s second worst streak of defeats on foreign soil. They had lost 17 Tests in a row between 1959 and 1968, which is also a world record.
