When MS Dhoni walked onto the field with his team on Day 2 of the Mohali Test – after Day 1 was washed out – he created history. The Indian skipper went past former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin’s record of leading India on 221 occasions. Dhoni has now led the Men in Blue 222 times, spanning all three formats of the international game.
Dhoni also went past another milestone when he effected his 50th dismissal against the Australians in Test cricket. Here are these and many more stats highlights from today’s play:
Shikhar Dhawan became the 277th player to represent India in Test cricket. He is the 40th Indian player to make his Test debut against Australia.
Ishant Sharma was playing his 50th Test. He became the 27th Indian to do so.
MS Dhoni was leading India in an international (Tests + ODIs + T20Is) match for 222nd time. With this he overhauled Mohammad Azharuddin’s record of leading India in most international matches.
Captains that lead India in most international games
|
Players |
Mts |
Won |
Lost |
NR / Drawn |
Tied |
Win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
MS Dhoni |
222* |
119 |
78 |
20 |
4 |
53.84 |
|
M Azharuddin |
221 |
104 |
90 |
25 |
2 |
47.06 |
|
Sourav Ganguly |
195 |
97 |
78 |
20 |
0 |
49.74 |
|
Kapil Dev |
108 |
43 |
40 |
24 |
1 |
39.81 |
|
Rahul Dravid |
104 |
50 |
39 |
15 |
0 |
48.08 |
|
Sachin Tendulkar |
98 |
27 |
52 |
18 |
1 |
27.55 |
|
Sunil Gavaskar |
84 |
23 |
29 |
32 |
0 |
27.38 |
Michael Clarke won his third toss in the series. On all three occasions, he’s opted to bat first.
Phillip Hughes fell to a spinner for the fifth time in the series. His figures against spinners in the series read as follows: Balls faced - 82, Runs made - 8, Dismissals - 5, Average - 1.60, Strike rate - 9.75
Hughes’ performance against each of the Indian spinners is as follows:- vs Ashwin: 58 balls, 2 runs, 3 dismissals; vs Jadeja: 18 balls, 1 run, 1 dismissal; vs Ojha: 2 balls, 0 runs, 1 dismissal; and vs Harbhajan: 4 balls, 5 runs, no dismissal.
Michael Clarke was dismissed for a duck for the seventh time in his career. This was his second first-ball duck. Both have come against India – at Sydney in 2008 and today.
Clarke became only the 10th batsman to be dismissed stumped off the very first ball he faced. He is second Australian on this list, after Ricky Ponting, who also suffered this fate against India – at Chennai in 2000-01.
Incidentally, Clarke is the first captain to be dismissed stumped on duck against India.
This was the eighth time that Clarke got out stumped in Test cricket. He is now joint second with West Indies’ Clyde Walcott in the list of batsmen who have got out on most occasions in this fashion. Only Allan Border (9) is ahead of these two.
Jadeja has now dismissed Clarke four times in the series. Clarke’s performance against Jadeja in the series: Balls faced - 167, Runs scored - 66, Dismissals- 4, Average - 16.50, Strike-rate - 39.52
Ashwin has now dismissed Ed Cowan six times – most times he has dismissed a particular batsman in Test cricket.
MS Dhoni, with the dismissal of Phillip Hughes completed his 50 dismissals against Australia (39 catches and 11 stumpings). He is the first Indian to do so against Australia.
Incidentally, Dhoni has also effected 50 dismissals against England – 46 catches and 4 stumpings in 16 Tests.
Dhoni now has 241 dismissals in Test cricket – same as England’s Alec Stewart.
