It was the 1517th Test in cricket history. It was India's 336th and Zimbabwe's 47th Test. It was the fifth Test match between the two sidessecond on Indian soil. Sharandeep Singh became the 192nd Indian to make a Test appearance. At 21 years and 35 days Sharandeep became the 42nd youngest player to represent India in a Test match. Umpires Steve Dunne and AV Jayaprakash officiated in their 36th and 7th match respectively. Shiv Sundar Das made his maiden Test century in his 3rd Test. Rahul Dravid scored his eighth Test hundred in his 40th Test-his third against Zimbabwe. Dravid ended his streak of unbeaten knocks when his intended hook landed in wicketkeeper Andy Flower's gloves. The last time he was dismissed was on the day three (November 12,2000) of Dhaka Test against Bangladesh. Dravid then made 41 not out in the second innings of Dhaka Test. Dravid followed it up with his maiden double hundred (200*) and a quickfire 70* against Zimbabwe in the Delhi Test. Dravid played yet another scintillating knock of 162 to extend his unbeaten streak to 473 before being dismissed. Dravid, in the course, narrowly missed the world record of aggregating most runs in consecutive innings during career without being dismissed which is still held by the great West Indian allrounder Gary Sobers who followed his 365* against Pakistan in 1957-58 with 125 thus making an aggregate of 490. Dravid with his aggregate of 473 runs is placed second in this list. Incidentally the previous Indian record was held by Vijay Hazare, who aggregated 319 runs without being dismissed during the 1951-52 series against England. Hazare scored 164* and followed it up with 155 in the next Test at Bombay (now Mumbai). The accompanying table has the details:
Runs Sequence Batsman Country
490 (365*,125) G St A Sobers WI
473 (41*,200*,70*,162) RS Dravid Ind
427 (275*,152) DJ Cullinan SA
426 (334*,92) MA Taylor Aus
393 (177*,152*,21*,43) SR Waugh Aus
380 (247*,133) GS Chappell Aus
376 (270*,106) GA Headley WI
375 (375) BC Lara WI
Rahul Dravid finished the Test series with a batting average of 432.00. This is the second highest series average of all time (minimum two Tests) behind Wally Hammond's 563.00 against New Zealand in 1932-33. Hammond made 227 and 336 not out (then a new world Test record ) in the two match series played in New Zealand after the bodyline series in Australia. The following table lists the highest averages recorded in a Test series.
Ave. Batsman For Vs Series M I NO Runs HS 100 50 0
563 Hammond WR Eng NZ+ 1932-33 2 2 1 563 336* 2 0 0
432 Dravid RS Ind+ Zim 2000-01 2 3 2 432 200* 2 1 0
427 Cullinan DJ SA NZ+ 1998-99 3 3 2 427 275* 2 0 0
362 Waugh SR Aus+ SL 1995-96 2 3 2 362 170 2 1 0
292 Wasim Akram Pak+ Zim 1996-97 2 2 1 292 257* 1 0 0
260 Lloyd D Eng+ Ind 1974 2 2 1 260 214* 1 0 0
240 Denness MH Eng NZ+ 1974-75 2 2 1 240 181 1 1 0
231 Shastri RJ Ind+ Aus 1986-87 3 3 2 231 121* 1 1 0
229 Mead CP Eng+ Aus 1921 2 2 1 229 182* 1 0 0
226 Sutcliffe H Eng+ NZ 1931 2 2 1 226 117 2 0 0
216 Waugh SR Aus+ NZ 1993-94 3 3 2 216 147* 1 0 0
216 Fletcher KWR Eng NZ+ 1974-75 2 1 0 216 216 1 0 0
216 de Silva PA SL+ Pak 1996-97 2 4 2 432 168 3 0 0
207 Patel BP Ind WI+ 1975-76 3 4 3 207 115* 1 0 0
201.5 Bradman DG Aus+ SA 1931-32 5 5 1 806 299* 4 0 0
+ denotes the series venue
Sachin Tendulkar scored his second double hundred in his 79th Test. The other being 217 against New Zealand at Ahmedabad in 1999-00. The hundred was Tendulkar's 24th in his Test career and 50th of his international career (including 26 ODI hundreds). Tendulkar is the first batsman in cricket annals to score 50 international hundreds. Sunil Gavaskar, Viv Richards and Desmond Haynes are way behind Tendulkar with 35 hundreds. Among the contemporary players Australian Mark Waugh has 31 hundreds in his name. 19 of Tendulkar's hundreds have come at batting position number four, which equals Pakistan's Javed Miandad's record of most hundreds at number four. However Tendulkar needed only 89 innings to equal Miandad's record as against his 140. Miandad, though, still holds the record of aggregating most runs in a career at number four - 6925 runs @ 54.10. Tendulkar is placed second with 4768 runs @ 61.38. The hundred was Tendulkar's 11th at home soil in his 34th Test. He thus surpassed Gundappa Viswanath's tally of 10 hundreds in home matches. Among the Indians, only Sunil Gavaskar (16), Dilip Vengsarkar (13) and Mohammad Azharuddin (13) are ahead of Tendulkar. Just for the record, the Test record of most hundreds at home soil is held by Australia's Don Bradman- 18 hundreds in 33 matches. The third wicket partnership of 249 runs between Dravid and Tendulkar is the highest for this wicket by any side against Zimbabwe. This obliterates the previous record stand of 213 between this same pair in the last Test at Delhi. India's only innings included three centuries which equals Indian record of most centuries in an innings. This record has now been made on 10 occasions. The most recent before this Test was against New Zealand at Ahmedabad in 1999-00. This, however, is a new record against Zimbabwe. The previous record was of two hundreds which was made on six occasions. India's total (606-9d) is its highest against Zimbabwe obliterating the previous highest of 536-7d at Delhi in 1992-93. The total is also the highest by any side against Zimbabwe surpassing Pakistan's 553 at Sheikhupura in 1996-97. Zimbabwean keeper Andy Flower did not concede a single bye during Indian innings. It was the ninth occasion of a keeper not letting a bye go in an innings of 600 plus. The record is in the name of Sri Lanka's Hasan Tillekeratne who did not concede a bye in New Zealand's total of 671 for four at Wellington in 1990-91. The previous record for Zimbabwe was also in the name of Andy Flower. He had not conceded a bye in New Zealand's first innings total of 465 at Harare in 2000-01. This is also the highest total without a bye on Indian soil. England's Richard Blakey had not conceded a bye during India's innings of 560 at Madras (now Chennai) in 1992-93. The second wicket stand of 101 runs between Guy Whittall and Stuart Carlisle in first innings is Zimbabwe's best for this wicket against India bettering the 78 run-stand between Murray Goodwin and Gavin Rennie at Harare in 1998-99. The fifth wicket stand of 96 runs between Andy and Grant Flower is Zimbabwe's highest for this wicket against India. This obliterates the previous record stand of 62 between Andy Flower and Guy Whittall in the previous Test at Delhi. Grant Flower (106*) became the first Zimbabwean to notch up a hundred after bagging a pair in the previous Test (at Delhi). This feat has now been recorded by eight batsmen. Grant Flower on 65, completed his 1000 runs in 'away' matches - second Zimbabwean to do so after brother Andy Flower who has aggregated 1903 runs in 23 matches at the end of this Test. When skipper Saurav Ganguly asked Zimbabwe to follow-on, it was the 20th instance of India enforcing the follow-on on the opponentssecond instance against Zimbabwe. The first one was at Delhi in 1992-93. On the other hand, it was the fifth occasion Zimbabweans were made to follow-on by the opponents. Alistair Campbell scored his maiden Test hundred in his 47th Test and 84th innings and after scoring 2030 runs with 13 fifties. The fourth wicket partnership of 209 runs between Campbell and Andy Flower is Zimbabwe's best for this wicket against India beating the 192 run-partnership between Flower brothers at Delhi in 1992-93. The seventh wicket unbroken stand of 98 runs between Andy Flower and Heath Streak is Zimbabwe's best for this wicket against India beating the 34 runs between Andy Flower and Paul Strang in the previous Test at Delhi. Andy Flower's 232* is the second highest ever by a Zimbabwean in Tests, after David Houghton's 266 against Sri Lanka in Bulawayo in 1994-95 Andy Flower's double century was the fourth by a Zimbabwean. (David Houghton 266, Guy Whittall 203*, Grant Flower 201*) Andy Flower's 232* is the highest score ever by a wicketkeeper in Tests, bettering Taslim Arif's 210 scored for Pakistan against Australia in 1979-80. Incidentally the previous highest by a wicketkeeper against India was Ian Smith's 173 for New Zealand at Auckland in 1989-90. Andy Flower became only the fifth batsman to save his team from defeat despite the opponents enforcing follow-on. Others to do so are Pakistan's Hanif Mohammad 337 v West Indies at Bridgetown in 1957-58 (facing a first innings deficit of 473 runs), India's Dilip Sardesai 200* v New Zealand at Bombay in 1964-65 (facing a first innings deficit of 209 runs), Pakistan's Salim Malik 237 v Australia at Rawalpindi in 1994-95 (facing a first innings deficit of 261 runs) and South Africa's Gary Kirsten 275 v England at Durban in 1999-00 (facing a first innings deficit of 210 runs). Andy Flower's innings is the fourth highest by a visiting batsman on Indian soil. The best three have been played by West Indians. Rohan Kanhai made 256 at Calcutta in 1958-59, Foud Bacchus made 250 at Kanpur in 1978-79 and Clive Lloyd made 242* at Bombay Wankhede in 1974-75. Andy Flower's match aggregate of 287 (55 and 232*) is the highest for Zimbabwe in all Tests beating Dave Houghton's 266 v Sri Lanka at Bulawayo in 1994-95. Andy Flower, by aggregating 540 runs in the series,became only the third batsman in Test cricket history to aggregate 500 or more runs in a series consisting of two matches. The record is held by Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya who scored 571 runs in just three innings also against India in home series in 1997-98. The only other instance was recorded in 1932-33 when Englishman Wally Hammond aggregated 563 runs in just two innings against New Zealand. There were as many as six hundreds scored in the match - three each for India and Zimbabwe which equals the record in a match involving India. This record has now been made on four occasions. The other three being Kingston Test between West Indies and India in 1952-53, St.John's Test between West Indies and India in 1982-83 and Colombo (RP) Test between Sri Lanka and India in 1996-97. Zimbabwe's second innings total (503 for six) is its highest against India beating the previous highest of 456 which was achieved in its inaugural Test at Harare in 1992-93. It is also Zimbabwe's second highest in all Tests after the 544 for 4 decl against Pakistan at Harare in 1994-95. The total is also the seventh highest by a team after being asked to follow-on. The record is held by Pakistan which made 657 for 8 decl against West Indies at Bridgetown in 1957-58. At the end of the series:Overall Test record:
India: played 336, won 63, lost 112, drawn 160 and tied one.
Zimbabwe: played 47, won 3, lost 25 and drawn 19.
Captaincy record:
Saurav Ganguly: played 3, won 2, drawn 1.
Heath Streak: played 4, lost 3, drawn 1.
