Blog Posts by HR Gopala Krishna

PP Ojha and R Ashwin shared the new ball in West
Indies's second innings in the ongoing test at Delhi providing the 21^st occasion
of two spin bowlers opening the attack in a test innings.

India has deployed two
spinners to share the new ball in a test innings on six occasions - vs England
at Kanpur in Jan 1952 {Ghulam Ahmed and MH Mankad}, vs England at Kanpur in Feb
1964 {ML Jaisimha and SA Durrani}, vs West Indies at Bridgetown in May 2002 {SR
Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh}, vs Australia at Delhi in Oct 2008 {A Kumble and
V Sehwag}, vs Sri Lanka at Mum-BS in Dec 2009 {Harbhajan Singh and PP Ojha} and
vs West Indies at Delhi in Nov 2011 {PP Ojha and R Ashwin}.

The following table lists
all the 21 occasions.

R Ashwin's six for 47 in the Delhi
Test against West Indies provides the eighth
occasion of an Indian bowler capturing five or more wickets on test debut. He
became the seventh Indian bowler to perform the feat.

It is interesting to note in this elite list - barring M
Nissar and Abid Ali - all are spin bowlers.

R Ashwin is the second Indian bowler to take five or more
wickets on debut against West Indies and his feat provides the third such
occasion against West Indies.

SR Tendulkar completed
15000 test runs when he was on 28 during the course of his knock of 33 in India's second
innings. At the end of the third day of the test, his run aggregate stood at 15005.
He is the first batsman in the annals of test cricket to score 15000 test runs.

Apart from completing
15000 runs SR Tendulkar achieved another world record. He was playing his 300^th
test innings when he came to the crease in India's second innings. He became
the first batsman in the annals of test cricket to play 300 test innings.

SR Tendulkar's performance
against each opposition is furnished below

When R
Dravid and SR Tendulakar added 22 runs in the course of their partnership
for the third wicket in the
first test at Delhi,
they became the first Indian pair to add 3000 runs in the tests played at home.
At the end of the third day of the test their aggregate partnership runs stood
at 3035.   

R Dravid-SR
Tendulkar became the fourth pair of batsmen to add 3000 plus runs in the tests
played on home soil. The following table lists out the four pairs who have
achieved the feat:

Virender Sehwag was stumped by Carlton Baugh off Devendra
Bishoo for 55 in the Delhi Test, providing his fifth such dismissal in a Test. It is
a record for an Indian opening batsman.

Sehwag's five stumpings:

Sehwag is the fifth opener to be stumped five times
or more in tests. The table-toppers:

When
MS Dhoni stumped West Indies' Kraigg Brathwaite off Pragyan Ojha, it was his
199^th wicketkeeping dismissal in Tests. He thus overtook Syed
Kirmani, who had held the Indian record of 198 dismissals.

Kirmani,
who finished playing Tests in 1986, was the first Indian wicketkeeper to 100
Test dismissals, and he had owned the record for over three decades.

Later
in the innings, Dhoni caught Marlon Samuels, making him the first Indian
wicketkeeper to 200 dismissals.

Dhoni
is the 13^th wicketkeeper to reach the mark. He would be expected to
climb this list quickly given that most of these wicketkeepers here have
retired.

Ross
Taylor has achieved one of the rarest feats in Test cricket.

He
scored 76 runs in both innings against Zimbabwe in the ongoing Test
in Bulawayo. He's only the 15^th batsman ever to score identical
scores of fifty or more in the same Test.

Duleep
Mendis of Sri Lanka scored 105 twice in the Chennai Test of 1982, making it the
highest identical scores in a Test.

The
complete list:

A
triple-hundred is a rarity in any form of cricket and Ranji Trophy is no
exception. There are only 27 triples in 77 years of the tournament. Ravindra
Jadeja of Saurashtra is the latest.

The
first was Vijay Hazare, who had made 316 not out representing Maharashtra
against Baroda in Pune in 1939-40

Jadeja
made 314 against Orissa in Cuttack in one of the opening games of Ranji Trophy
season 2011-12.

The
complete list of all Ranji Trophy triples, by runs made: