On what came as a surprise to many, Australian captain Michael Clarke chose to declare his team’s first innings at 237/9. The logic behind this move was to try and bag a couple of Indian wickets in the three overs left in the first day’s play. However, this isn’t the first time that an international skipper has made such an audacious decision; it is the third such instance in Test history, to be precise.
Here’s more on that and some other interesting stats highlights from Day 1 of the Hyderabad Test:
For the first time a side other than New Zealand played a Test at Hyderabad. All three Tests at Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium and previous two Tests at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium featured New Zealand.
Glenn Maxwell became the 433rd player to represent Australia in Test cricket.
MS Dhoni was leading India in an international (Tests + ODIs + T20Is) match for the 221st time. With this he equalled Mohammad Azharuddin’s record of leading India in most international matches.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar claimed his first wicket in Test cricket when he dismissed David Warner. He had gone wicketless despite bowling 13 overs in Chennai Test.
Interestingly Bhuvneshwar’s first wicket in each format of the game at the international level has been BOWLED – Nasir Jamshed in T20Is, Mohammad Hafeez in ODIs and now David Warner in Tests. Bhuvneshwar is the first bowler to perform this feat.
Incidentally, Warner’s wicket was also Bhuvneshwar’s 150th in first-class cricket.
Michael Clarke, while on 47, completed 2,500 runs as captain in Test cricket. By taking only 39 innings to do so, Clarke became the third fastest to reach this landmark, after Don Bradman (28 innings) and Graham Gooch (38).
The 145-run partnership between Clarke and Matthew Wade is Australia’s best for the fifth wicket in a Test on Indian soil. The previous best was 139 between Damien Martyn and Jason Gillespie at Chennai in 2004-05.
Clarke (91) was dismissed in the nineties for fifth time in his Test career – for the second time against India. At Nagpur in 2004-05, he was dismissed at the same score.
Australia declared their first innings at 237/9. The last time a side declared on the first day of a Test was in 1974 at Lord’s when Pakistan declared at 130/9 against England after collapsing from 91 for one.
Incidentally, Australia provided only the third instance in Tests of a side declaring on the first day of a Test. The other (apart from two mentioned above) instance came at Lord’s in 1949 when England declared at 313/9 against New Zealand.
