Kohli goes past Dhoni

During the final Test in Johannesburg, Virat Kohli went past M. S. Dhoni's record for the most number of Test runs made by an Indian captain.

3456

The number of Test runs made by Virat Kohli as captain. This is the most by an Indian captain in Test cricket. During the final Test in Johannesburg, Kohli went past the previous record tally of 3454 by M.S. Dhoni, who did so in 96 innings. Kohli needed just 57 innings. The table below has the details:

Most runs as Test captain for India

Runs	Captain	Mts	Inns	NO	HS	Ave	100	50
3456	Virat Kohli	35	57	4	243	65.20	14	6
3454	MS Dhoni	60	96	11	224	40.63	5	24
3449	Sunil Gavaskar	47	74	6	205	50.72	11	14
2856	Mohd Azharuddin	47	68	3	192	43.93	9	9
2561	Sourav Ganguly	49	75	7	144	37.66	5	13

 

5

The number of opponent openers who have managed to carry the bat against India. South Africa’s Dean Elgar, during his unbeaten 86 in the second innings of the Johannesburg Test, became the latest entrant. The table below has the details:

Opponent opener carrying bat in a Test innings against India

Runs	Total	Batsman	For	Venue	Month, Year	MInns	Btg#	Result
124*	331	Nazar Mohd	Pakistan	Lucknow	Oct 1952	2	1	Won
49*	107	Bill Lawry+	Australia	Delhi	Nov 1969	3	2	Lost
152*	323	Mudassar Nazar	Pakistan	Lahore	Jan 1983	1	2	Drawn
188*	316	Saeed Anwar	Pakistan	Kolkata	Feb 1999	3	1	Won
86*	177	Dean Elgar	South Africa	Johannesburg	Jan 2018	4	2	Lost

+ captain

 

118

South Africa’s lowest ever ODI total at home. Overall, it was their eighth lowest in all ODI cricket. However, it was their second lowest against India in ODIs. Their lowest is 117 in 48 overs at the Nairobi Gymkhana on September 26, 1999.

South Africa’s lowest ODI total at home

Total	Overs	Against	Venue	Date	Result	Batting
118	32.2	India	Centurion	4 Feb 2018	Lost	1
119	36.5	England	Port Elizabeth	29 Nov 2009	Lost	1
129	22.0	Australia	Centurion	19 Oct 2011	Lost	2
129	41.4	England	East London	19 Jan 1996	Won	1
140/9	50.0	West Indies	Cape Town	17 Feb 1993	Won	1

 

5-22

Yuzvendra Chahal’s bowling performance in the 2nd ODI at Centurion. This is now the second best ODI bowling performance by a spinner on South African soil, but by far the best by a wrist spinner (previous best: Imran Tahir’s 4-28 against West Indies at East London in January 2015). Interestingly, since December 1992, when the first ODI was played in South Africa, there have been 38 instances of bowlers claiming a five-wicket haul in an ODI on South African soil, and Chahal provided the third instance of a spinner taking a five-wicket haul in South Africa in 333 matches!

Best ODI bowling performance in a spinner on South African soil

Total	Overs	Bowler	For	Opp	Venue	Date	Result	Bowling
5/21	6.3	Nicky Boje	SAf	Aus	Cape Town	9 Apr 2002	Won	2
5/22	8.2	Yuzvendra Chahal	Ind	SAf	Centurion	4 Feb 2018	Won	2
5/23	9.2	M Muralidharan	SL	Pak	Benoni	15 Apr 1998	Won	2
4/6	4.3	Yuvraj Singh	Ind	Nam	Pietermaritzburg	23 Feb 2003	Won	2
4/16	4.5	J-P Duminy	SAf	Ire	Benoni	25 Sep 2016	Won	2

 

177

The number of balls that remained in India’s nine-wicket victory over South Africa at Centurion. This is India’s second biggest win, in terms of balls remaining, against a Test-playing nation in ODI cricket. For the record, India’s biggest victory in terms of balls was when they beat Kenya at Bloemfontein (October 12, 2001) by 10 wickets with 231 balls to spare!

India’s biggest ODI wins in terms of balls to spare against Test playing nations

Balls to spare	Against	Venue	Date	Wickets to spare
178	Sri Lanka	Mohali	28 Oct 2005	8
177	South Africa	Centurion	4 Feb 2018	9
173	New Zealand	Chennai	10 Dec 2010	8
170	Sri Lanka	Sharjah	8 Apr 1984	10
169	Zimbabwe	Harare	15 Jun 2016	10

 

THIS WEEK IN 1990 23 February: New Zealand wicket-keeper Ian Smith blasted 173 in 136 balls, with 23 fours and 3 sixes, against India in the Auckland Test. The effort by Smith still remains the best score by a batsman batting at No. 9 in Test history!

 

QUERIES CORNER In the recently concluded Test series in South Africa, Cheteshwar Pujara was run out in both innings of the Centurion Test. Has any batsman in the top three been dismissed in this manner? — B. K. Harinath, Mysuru In my last column, I had provided details of the previous such dismissals. However, the following top-order (top three) batsmen have been dismissed run out twice in a Test match:   Jeff Stollmeyer West Indies England Bridgetown 1953/54 (while opening the batting) Jimmy Jameson England India The Oval 1971 (while opening the batting) Zaheer Abbas Pakistan Australia Melbourne 1972/73 (at number 3) Mark Taylor Australia West Indies Adelaide 1988/89 (while opening the batting) Mark Taylor Australia England Adelaide 1990/91 (while opening the batting) Andrew Jones New Zealand Pakistan Christchurch 1993/94 (at number 3) Marvan Atapattu Sri Lanka Zimbabwe Harare 1999/00 (while opening the batting) Cheteshwar Pujara India South Africa Centurion 2017/18 (at number 3)   Any instances in Test cricket where none of the 11 batsmen managed to reach double figures? — Sai Vishwanath It happened just once, in June 1924 in Birmingham, when South Africa were dismissed for a paltry 30 in 12.3 overs by England. None of the South African batsmen reached double figures. Their opener and captain Herbie Taylor top scored with 7. However, interestingly, extras (11) managed to cross double figures in that innings! In the recent ODI series against Sri Lanka in India, Washington Sundar, on debut, claimed his maiden international wicket off his ninth ball in Mohali. Has any cricketer done better than him in this respect? — Arivu T here are several instances of bowlers, even from India, claiming their maiden international wicket off their very first ball or in their first over. Therefore, Washington doing so off his ninth ball is not at all rare in international cricket! South Africa won the recent Test series 2-1 against India without a single individual three-figure score by any of their batsmen. Has this happened before? — Abhay Chaturvedi, Agra This is happening for the seventh occasion in a three-Test series. But this is the first time for South Africa. The first such instance was in 1888, when England beat Australia at home 2-1. Interestingly, in that series not a single century was registered. The highest score in the whole series was 70 by Bobby Abel in the second Test at the Oval! Note: All figures above are updated as on February 5, 2018.