Statistical highlights, Day 4

·  The victory by an innings and 83 runs gave India their third win in a row on foreign soil -- their best sequence overseas. Interestingly all three wins have come by an innings margin - by innings & 131 runs v Pakistan at Rawalpindi, by innings & 140 runs v Bangladesh at Dhaka and by innings & 83 runs v Bangladesh at Chittagong.

·  India registered their 23rd win on foreign soil -- ninth under Ganguly's captaincy. No other Indian captain has won more than three Tests on foreign soil.

·  The victory was India's sixth in the year 2004, which equals their best performance in a calendar year. In 2002 also India won six Tests, but then India played 16 Tests as against 12 in 2004.

·  Bangladesh suffered their 31st loss in Test cricket in the 34th Test. Of these 20 have been lost by innings. In fact they have lost their last five Test matches by an innings margin. The following table lists year-wise break-up of Bangladesh's performance in Test cricket:

·  Irfan Pathan ended the series with 18 wickets to his name. His tally of the wickets is the highest for an Indian speedster in a two match series. The previous record was of 16 wickets held by Chetan Sharma against England in 1986 (that series consisted of three matches but Chetan played in only 2 Tests).

·  Infact Irfan's performance is the second best for any Indian bowler in a two match series. Only Anil Kumble has taken more wickets than Irfan -- 21 v Pakistan in 1998-99.

·  Before the series against Bangladesh, Irfan had taken 21 wickets in 8 Tests at an average of 41.19. After the series Pathan has taken 39 wickets at an average of 27.66 -- an improvement of 13.53 points! It will be interesting to see how Irfan stands up in comparison with other Indian pacers after exactly 10 Tests:

·  Harbhajan Singh has now taken 189 wickets and is at level with Erapally Prasanna as the most successful off-spinner for India.

·  India won both Tests of the series on the fourth day. Out of the 34 Tests Bangladesh have played, only six have gone into the fifth day (excluding three where at least one day's play was lost due to rain etc.).

·  Extras contributed 21.77% in Bangladesh's second innings total - fifth highest contribution made by extras in an all-out innings in Test cricket. The accompanying table has the details:

·  14.44% of Bangladesh runs in the match came in the form of extras. This is the highest percentage of extras conceded by India in a match where opponents lost all 20 wickets. The previous record was of 13.57% extras, which was made in the Chandigarh Test against Sri Lanka in 1990-91. India conceded 38 extras in Sri Lanka's match total of 280 (8 and 30 extras in Sri Lanka's innings of 82 and 198 respectively).

·  Bangladesh were bundled out for 124 in 26.4 overs (160 balls) in second innings. This is the second lowest completed innings against India in terms of balls. India had dismissed England for 102 in only 158 balls in second innings of Mumbai Test in 1981-82.

·  Talha Jubair (31) top scored for Bangladesh in second innings. This provided only the sixth instance of a number 11 batsman top-scoring in a completed innings. This was the first such instance against India. The last # 11 batsman to top score in an innings was Sri Lankan Jayantha Amerasinghe (v New Zealand at Kandy in 1983-84).

·  Mohammad Ashraful won Man of the Match award. He now holds the unique record of winning Man of the Match award twice for a side that lost a Test by innings margin. Ashraful had also shared the award with Muttiah Muralitharan in his debut Test in Colombo SSC in 2001-02, which Bangladesh lost by an innings and 137 runs.

- Statistical Highlights, Day 3
- Statistical Highlights, Day 2
- Statistical Highlights, Day 1