In Stats: India on the Cusp of History After Big Win vs Sri Lanka
Take a look at the second Test between India and Sri Lanka through some interesting numbers.
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A first innings victory on Sri Lankan soil (second Test) saw India take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match Test series. After posting a mammoth 622-9 batting first, India dismissed the home side for 183 and 386 in successive innings to win by an innings and 53 runs.
Along with this win at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo in four days, the Indian team now has 8 Test wins in Sri Lanka – more than in any other country they have toured.
Team India, by virtue of winning this current series, have now defeated Sri Lanka twice in consecutive series in their own backyard. Two years ago – around this same time in 2015, India came from 0-1 down to defeat the hosts 2-1.
Starting from that win in 2015 until this series, India has won 8 consecutive Test series – which is only one series behind the record of 9 consecutive Test series wins registered by England and Australia.
With the two wins on this tour of Sri Lanka, Virat Kohli now has 18 Test match wins as captain – out of a total of 28 Test matches he has led India in.
At the same point, that is, after their first 28 Tests as captain, only two former Australian captains – Steve Waugh (21) and Ricky Ponting (20) – had more wins than Virat’s 18.
Among Indian captains, Virat has the highest win percentage after 28 Test matches; his predecessor MS Dhoni had led India to 15 wins in his first 28 Tests in-charge, while Sourav Ganguly had led India to 12 wins in his first 28 matches as India Test captain.
In the context of overseas Test wins under Indian captains, Virat – who has now led India to 6 away wins – has drawn level with MS Dhoni’s record. Only Sourav Ganguly led India to more overseas wins during his time at the helm.
India’s big win was the result of important contributions all-round. With the bat, six batsmen posted scores of 50 or more, and helped the team to mammoth total of 622; it was only the second instance in history that six Indian batsmen had scored 50-plus scores in the same innings in an overseas Test.
With the ball, Ravichandran Ashwin picked up 5 wickets to dismiss the hosts cheaply in the first innings, while Ravindra Jadeja collected 5 scalps in the second innings; both spinners collected seven wickets each in the match, while Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya and Umesh Yadav chipped in with useful strikes.
While half-centuries and centuries, and 5-wicket hauls and 10-wicket hauls are celebrated, one aspect of the game that isn’t often celebrated or spoken about as much is the ‘catching’.
In the SSC Test, Ajinkya Rahane collected his 50th catch in Test cricket; among Indian cricketers, only Eknath Solkar – the super-fielder of the 1970s – had more catches than Rahane’s tally after 39 Tests (which is how many Rahane has now played).
Rahane has established a reputation of being one of the safest pair of hands – particularly in the slip cordon – in the current Indian team. In recent times, the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja owe a lot of their success to Rahane; off the 50 catches Rahane has so far taken in Test cricket, 34 are of the bowling of either Ashwin (18) or Jadeja (16).
Fielding milestones are rarely celebrated, but perhaps time has come to recognize catching as an integral element of the game, and perhaps fielders should start raising the ball to celebrate 5 catches in a match, 50-catch-milestones, 100-catch-milestones and so on.
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