Blog Posts by HR Gopala Krishna

Australia won the Johannesburg
test against South Africa
by two wickets providing the 17^th occasion of a team winning a test
by this margin in the annals of test cricket.

Australia has won six tests by two
wickets, while South Africa
has lost five tests by the same margin.  Australia has won three tests by this margin
against South Africa – at Port Elizabeth in March
1997, at Jo’burg in March 2006 and at Jo’burg in Nov 2011.

It is interesting to note that out of 1313 matches
which have been won by various teams in the annals of test cricket, 17 tests
have been won by two wickets and 12 tests have been won by one margin. The
following table lists out all the 17 occasions:

An Indian wicket-keeper
now holds the world record for most dismissals in a first class match. Hyderabad's Ibrahim Khaleel bagged this record by
effecting 14 dismissals {11 catches and 3 stumpings} in the Ranji Trophy Plate
Division match against Assam
at Guwahati.

For I Khaleel, effecting 10
or more dismissals is not new. He had earlier effected nine dismissals {09
catches} against Services at Secunderabad in 2005/06.

I Khaleel's seven
dismissals in each innings is also a world record as no wicket keeper has
peformed such a feat. The previous record was six dismissals in each innings
and the feat was credited to PD McGlashan of New Zealand. He had achieved the
feat representing Northern Districts against Central Districts at Whangarei in the
2009/10 season.

PJ Cummins was named the Man of the Match for
his 6 for 79 in South Africa's
second innings at Johannesburg.
This is the 26^th time a cricketer has won the Man of the match award
for his performance either with the willow or leather on his test debut.

PJ Cummins is the sixth Australian cricketer to be
named the Man of the Match on his test debut. The following table lists out all
the six cricketers along with their debut performances:

PJ Cummins is the second Australian cricketer to

PJ Cummins returned with figures of 6 for 79 in
second innings in the second test between Australia
and South Africa at Johannesburg providing
the 14^th occasion of an Australian bowler capturing six or more
wickets on an innings on test debut.

There are 55 occasions of a bowler capturing six
or more wickets in an innings on test debut. The country-wise break up is: England {15}, Australia
{14}, South Africa {08}, India {05}, Pakistan
{04}, Bangladesh {03}, West
Indies {03}, New Zealand
{02} and Sri Lanka
{01}.

Australia, as a team, stands second
in the list of teams providing the most number of occasions of bowlers
capturing six or more wickets in an innings on test debut.  England
has most number of occasions - 15 and is followed by Australia - 14.

England and Australia are the only two teams
which have 10 or more occasions of bowlers capturing six or more wickets in an
innings on debut.

The following table lists out the Australian
bowlers capturing six or more

Shahid Afridi's all-round performance of 75 with
the willow and five for 35 with the leather against Sri Lanka at Sharjah in the fourth
one-day international on 20.11.11 gave him a singular distinction. He
became the only cricketer in the annals of ODIs to score a fifty and take five
wickets in the same match on two occasions. He had scored 61 and captured 5 for
40 against England at Lahore on 27.10.00.

Afridi became the second all-rounder to perform
such a feat against Sri
Lanka. L Klusener of South Africa was the
first when he made 54 and captured 6 for 49 at Lahore on 06.11.97.

Afridi's feat is the 15^th occasion of
an all-round performance of a fifty and five wickets in the same ODI match. All
such performances are listed below in its chronological order:

Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene became the ninth
batsman and the second from his country to complete 10,000 runs in one-day
internationals.

He reached the milestone during his short innings
of 13 in Sri Lanka's defeat to Pakistan in the third
ODI in Dubai.

Here's
the list of batsmen with 10,000 or more runs in ODIs:

JH Kallis
achieved the following distinctions during his knock of 54 against Australia on the first day of the second test against Australia at Johannesburg:

When he was
on five during the course of his knock of 54, he went past BC Lara's aggregate
of 11953.

When he was
on 51 during his knock of 54, he completed 12000 test runs. At the end of the
first day of the test, his aggregate stood at 12003.

His 54 in
the first innings of this test was the 95th of his career {40 hundreds and 55
half centuries}. He is now on par with RT Ponting who has also scored 95
fifties, Both JH Kallis and RT Ponting share the joint third place amongst the
batsmen who have scored most test fifties. 
SR Tendulkar {113} and R Dravid {97} occupy the first and second place respectively.

The
following table lists out the batsmen who have scored 12000 runs and also the
batsmen who have scored 95 plus test fifties:

VVS
Laxman became the fourth Indian batsman to score five Test hundreds at a single
venue.

His
176 not out against West Indies at Kolkata's Eden Gardens was his fifth there.

The
other Indians with five Test hundreds at a venue: