Day 4 of the second Test between India and Australia unfolded rather briskly. After resuming at 74/2, the visitors were all-out 135 runs short of India’s first-innings tally of 503 and lost by an innings margin. Thanks to this mammoth win, MS Dhoni became India’s winningest Test captain. He went past Sourav Ganguly’s tally of 21 victories at the helm. In doing so, Dhoni also maintained his 100 percent record against the Aussies on home soil – he has won all 6 games against the men from Down Under in India.
Here are these and other stats highlights from Day 4:
The win is India’s:
The win by innings and 135 runs is India’s second largest over Australia (by an innings margin). They had beaten Australia by an innings and 219 runs at Kolkata in 1997-98. Overall, it was India’s fourth innings win against Australia.
The win is also India’s sixth biggest against any opponent (by an innings margin).
MS Dhoni has now won all six home Tests in which he has captained India against Australia.
The win is India’s fifth in consecutive Tests at home against Australia. In fact India have not lost to Australia in the last 9 home Tests.
The win is India’s 22nd under MS Dhoni, making him India’s most successful captain ever.
Dhoni surpassed Sourav Ganguly’s tally of 21 wins.
India’s most successful captains
|
Players |
Mts |
Won |
Lost |
Drawn |
Tied |
Win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
MS Dhoni |
45 |
22 |
12 |
11 |
0 |
48.88 |
|
SC Ganguly |
49 |
21 |
13 |
15 |
0 |
42.86 |
|
M Azharuddin |
47 |
14 |
14 |
19 |
0 |
29.79 |
|
Tiger Pataudi |
40 |
9 |
19 |
12 |
0 |
22.50 |
|
SM Gavaskar |
47 |
9 |
8 |
30 |
0 |
19.15 |
|
R Dravid |
25 |
8 |
6 |
11 |
0 |
32.00 |
Australia’s defeat provided the 11th instance of a team losing after declaring the first innings of a match. It was the first time ever that a team lost by innings margin after declaring the first innings of a match.
India won the Test without taking all 20 opposition wickets (Michael Clarke had declared Australia’s first innings at nine down). This was the eighth such instance for India. Interestingly, four of them have come against Australia! The fewest wickets taken by India to win a Test are 16 against West Indies at Port-of-Spain in 1975-76. (Had India won the Chennai Test vs Australia in 1986-87- that eventually ended in a thrilling tie – they would have done so by taking only 12 opposition wickets!
MS Dhoni has now won seven Tests by an innings margin, equalling Sourav Ganguly’s tally. Now only Mohammad Azharuddin – with 8 wins by an innings margin – is ahead of Dhoni among Indian captains.
Australia’s combined aggregate of two innings in the match was 368 – two runs less than the marathon Murali Vijay-Cheteshwar Pujara partnership! Incidentally, it was the 14th instance when an entire team was outscored by a single partnership.
