Pujara's feat!

Cheteshwar Pujara... batting on all five days of the Kolkata Test.

  8:  

The number of batsmen to register 50 or more centuries in international cricket. Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 104 in the Kolkata Test match against Sri Lanka was the 50th century of his career. His tally now includes 19 Test centuries (after the 213 in the first innings against Sri Lanka in the Nagpur Test) and 32 in One-day internationals. The table below has all the details.

Batsmen with most international 100s

Total 100s	Batsman	For	Mts	Inns	Runs	HS	50s	Inns for 50th century	Achieved in
100	Sachin Tendulkar	Ind	664	782	34357	248*	164	376	Nov 2000
71	Ricky Ponting	Aus+	560	668	27483	257	146	420	Mar 2006
63	Kumar Sangakkara	SL+	594	666	28016	319	153	593	Feb 2014
62	Jacques Kallis	SAf+	519	617	25534	224	149	520	Feb 2010
54	Mahela Jayawardene	SL+	652	725	25957	374	136	667	Jan 2014
54	Hashim Amla	SAf+	310	384	17236	311*	77	348	Feb 2017
53	Brian Lara	WI+	430	521	22358	400*	111	465	Nov 2005
51	Virat Kohli	Ind	319	349	15961	235	77	348	Nov 2017

Note: Amla and Kohli are the quickest to reach this landmark — in 348 innings!

+ denotes appeared for other teams (World XI, Africa XI, Asia XI)

 

8:  The number of Test captains who had registered a three-figure score in the second innings after being dismissed for a duck in the first. Virat Kohli became the first Indian captain to do so. The table below lists all such instances.

Batsmen with a duck in the first and a 100 in the second as captain in same Test match

1st Inns	2nd inns	Captain	For	Opp	Venue	Month, Year	Result
	153*	Billy Murdoch	Aus	Eng	The Oval	Sep 1880	Lost
	143	Harry Trott	Aus	Eng	Lord’s	Jun 1896	Lost
	112	Peter May	Eng	SAf	Lord’s	Jun 1955	WON
	113*	Gary Sobers	WI	Eng	Kingston	Feb 1968	Drawn
	107	Martin Crowe	NZ	SL	Colombo SSC	Dec 1992	Lost
	129*	Mohd Ashraful	Ban	SL	Colombo PSS	Jul 2007	Lost
	110	Andrew Strauss	Eng	Aus	Brisbane	Nov 2010	Drawn
	104*	Virat Kohli	Ind	SL	Kolkata	Nov 2017	Drawn

 

9:  

The number of batsmen in Test cricket history who have done some batting on all the five days of a Test match. Cheteshwar Pujara (pic above) became the latest entrant in the Kolkata Test match. Interestingly, he joins two other Indians, who had both achieved a similar feat at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. M. L. Jaisimha was the first against Australia in January 1960 and then 24 years later, Ravi Shastri against England in Dec-Jan 1984-85. Given hereunder is the summary of Pujara’s batting on all the five days at the Eden Gardens.

Day	Runs	Balls	Notes
1	8*	32
2	39*	70
3	5	15	dismissed for 52 off 117 balls (1 inns)
4	2*	9
5	20	42	dismissed for 22 off 51 balls (2 inns)

 

0:  

The number of instances when Indian spinners could not claim a single wicket in a home match before the Kolkata Test match, thus providing the first ever such instance on Indian soil.

Fewest wickets to fall to spinners in a Test match in India

Wkts	Overs	Runs	Opponent	Venue	Month, Year	Result	(Spinners & wickets)	Wkts by pacers
	10	21	Sri Lanka	Kolkata	Nov 2017	Drawn	(R. Ashwin 0, R. Jadeja 0)	17
1	70	226	England	Chennai	Feb 1934	Lost	(Mushtaq Ali 1)	16
1	66	191	West Indies	Chennai	Jan 1949	Lost	(Vinoo Mankad 1, Ghulam Ahmed 0, Hemu Adhikari 0)	8
1	22	47	Pakistan	Kanpur	Dec 1979	Drawn	(Dilip Doshi 1, Shivlal Yadav 0)	9
1	41.3	126	England	Mumbai	Feb 1980	Lost	(Dilip Doshi 1, Shivlal Yadav 0, Gundappa Viswanath 0)	9

Note: The 17 wickets in Kolkata (above) are the most claimed by Indian pacers in a Test match in India.

 

This week in 1959 8 December Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first American President to witness a cricket Test match when he attended the Karachi Test between host Pakistan and Australia. The host managed to put on 104 runs for the loss of five wickets in 65 overs, during the entire day’s play!

 

Queries Corner As  far as Ranji Trophy is concerned, Mumbai has been the most consistent team winning on more than 40 occasions. Do let me know the cricketer(s) to have been part of the winning team on most occasions?  — G. Harish, Bengaluru Mumbai has so far won 41 Ranji Trophy titles, since its first win during the inaugural season of 1934/35. Ashok Mankad, from 1963/64 to 1975/76, was a part of the title winning playing XI on 12 occasions! When was the last time Indian spinners went wicket-less in both innings of a Test match before the recent instance against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens?  — S iddartha Mulumudi, Hyderabad The last time Indian spinners went wicket-less in both innings of a Test match for India was in Johannesburg in December 2013 when the lone spinner R. Ashwin (6-0-25-0 & 36-5-83-0) and part-timer M. Vijay (1-0-3-0, 2nd innings) could not manage a single wicket. India drew the Test, when South Africa, chasing a target of 458, finished with 450/7 on the final day! How often have Indian openers put on a century stand after a zero in the first. In the Kolkata Test the first wicket fell before a run was scored in the first innings and the same openers put on 166 in the second.  — Akhil Shetty, Mysuru After losing a wicket off the very first ball in the first innings, the Indian opening pair K. L. Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan put on 166 in the second innings. I could find only one other such instance in Indian cricket. On that occasion too, India had lost its opening wicket before a run was scored. However, openers Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan made amends by putting on 165 runs for the first wicket in the second innings against Australia at the MCG in February 1981. India managed to win the Test by 59 runs! When was the last time Bombay/Mumbai failed to reach the knockouts of the Ranji Trophy.  — Milan Shirke, Mumbai The last occasion was during the season of 2007/08, when it finished third with just 19 points behind Delhi & Saurashtra — both with 23 points from the Elite Group A. In recent times, it also failed to make it to the Ranji Trophy knockouts in 1977/78 and 1998/99. Note:   All figures above are updated as on November 26, 2017 Readers may send in their queries to sportstar@thehindu.co.in