The Oval Test marked the second instance of India starting a Test on August 15- first since gaining independence. The earlier instance was in 1936 also at the Oval!
Interestingly India, Pakistan & Sri Lanka have played a Test starting on their Independence Day for the first time- all in 2014! Sri Lanka played vs Bangladesh at Chittagong on February 4 and Pakistan vs Sri Lanka at Colombo SSC on August 14.
MS Dhoni was leading India for the 15th time in a Test against England- most by an Indian captain. Sunil Gavaskar held the previous Indian record of most appearances as captain against England.
Alastair Cook was playing his 107th consecutive Test. Now only Allan Border (153) has appeared in more consecutive Tests than Cook. Australia’s Mark Waugh also had a streak of 107 matches on the trot.
Gautam Gambhir made his sixth duck in Test cricket-. However it was first time that he got out to the very first ball he faced.
James Anderson has now inflicted 55 ducks in Test cricket. He is now only three away from Bob Willis’ England record of dismissing most batsmen for a duck.
It has now been 32 consecutive innings outside India that the opening pair has not managed a fifty-stand for India since Abhinav Mukund and Gautam Gambhir put on 63 at Lord’s in July 2011. India’s average opening stand in overseas Tests in this period has been only 17.78. Interestingly during the same period India’s average opening stand at home is 58.46. Out of 17 innings the opening pair has gone past 50 on 8 occasions.
Out of India’s total of 148, 82 came off MS Dhoni’s bat only – a percentage contribution of 55.40. This is the highest contribution in an all-out innings in Test cricket by a player performing the dual duty of captaining a side as well as keeping wickets. The details:
Highest contribution by a keeper-captain in an all-out innings
% Player Runs Total For vs Venue Season
55.40 MS Dhoni 82 148 Ind Eng The Oval 2014
53.50 T Taibu 153 286 Zim Ban Dhaka 2004-05
47.88 A Flower 113* 236 Zim WI Port-of-Spain 1999-00
46.71 MS Dhoni 71 152 Ind Eng Old Trafford 2014
44.18 A Flower 129 292 Zim SL Harare 1999-00
42.53 A Flower 74 174 Zim SL Harare 1999-00
Dhoni’s effort is the best by an Indian captain. He is, in fact, the first Indian captain to contribute 50% of team’s runs in an all-out innings.
Highest contribution by an Indian captain in an all-out innings
% Player Runs Total vs Venue Season
55.40 MS Dhoni 82 148 Eng The Oval 2014
49.52 M Azharuddin 103* 208 NZ Wellington 1998-99
49.06 M Azharuddin 182 371 Eng Kolkata 1992-93
48.74 SR Tendulkar 116 238 Aus Melbourne 1999-00
48.35 SM Gavaskar 205 424 WI Wankhede 1978-79
MS Dhoni has now scored 12 fifties against England without ever reaching a hundred. He now holds the Test record of most fifties against a side without reaching the three-figure mark. South Africa’s Dave Nourse had scored 11 fifties against England without ever scoring a hundred.
In successive Tests now Dhoni has scored more runs than the combined aggregate of other 10 players in an innings! in the first innings of Manchester Test Dhoni made 71, while other 10 batsmen scored only 69. At the Oval, Dhoni made 82 with others contributing only 59.
