Statistical highlights

Mohandas Menon

2nd match: Coca Cola Tri series in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe vs India

  Left-arm pace bowler Ashish Nehra became the 137th player to appear for India in LOIs.

  By claiming the wicket of Alistair Campbell off only his second ball of his LOI career, Nehra became the eleventh Indian bowler to capture a wicket in his very first over.

However, he joins only two non-regular bowlers Sadagopan Ramesh (1st ball - against West Indies at Singapore on 5-9-1999) and Sanjay Manjrekar (2nd ball - against Australia at Hobart on 10-12-1991) to claim wickets within the first two balls bowled during their career. With Ramesh doing so in his 15th match and Manjrekar in his 30th, Nehra's feat was the best debut start by an Indian bowler in LOIs. A special mention must be made of Atul Wassan, who on debut against New Zealand at Dunedin on 2-3-1990, had claimed wickets off his 4th and 5th balls.

  Ajit Agarkar's 3-26 was the best bowling figures for India on Zimbabwean soil in LOIs. The previous best was the 3-35 by Javagal Srinath at this same ground on October 25, 1992.

  Zimbabwe's 133 was its lowest against in LOIs. It previous lowest was the 135 in 44.2 overs it made at the Wankhede Stadium in 17-10-1987 (World Cup).

  During his unbeaten knock of 70, Sachin Tendulkar became the highest run scorer for a visiting batsman on Zimbabwean soil. He has now scored 280 runs in six matches. The previous highest aggregate was the 277 runs (avg. 69.25) by Sri Lankan Russel Arnold in five matches. For the record, Alistair Campbell has the maximum runs in Zimbabwe by any batsman - 1341 runs (avg. 40.64) in 40 matches.

  The nine-wicket win for India was one of Zimbabwe's worst in terms of wickets in any home international. Australia in successive days - on 23 and 24 October 1999 - at this very ground had won by the same margins.

  However, with India winning with 23.4 overs (142 balls) to spare, this was Zimbabwe's worst ever defeat at home in terms of overs (and balls) to spare in LOIs. Australia had beaten Zimbabwe with 21.3 overs (129balls) to spare at Harare on 23-10-1999 (see above).

  This was India's second biggest win over Zimbabwe in terms of overs (and balls) to spare. India had beaten Zimbabwe with 25 overs (150 balls) to spare at Kanpur on 11-12-2000. It was also the third biggest loss for the Zimbabwean side after the 29.3 overs (177 balls) to spare defeat at the hands of England at Manchester on 13-7-2000 and then comes the Kanpur match (above).

  Playing in his 269th match of his career, Tendulkar extended his 'man of the match' award record to 39, which is by far the maximum received by any other player in LOI history. He now has seven such awards against Zimbabwe in 29 matches.