Statistical highlights, Day 1

March 25, 2005 17:18 IST

Inzamam-ul Haq was making his 100th Test appearance, becoming fourth Pakistan player to appear in 100 Tests after Javed Miandad [ Images ] (124), Wasim Akram [ Images ] (104) and Salim Malik (103) and 31st in all.

Sourav Ganguly [ Images ] was leading India [ Images ] for the 47th time in a Test - equalling the Indian record of most Tests as a captain held by Sunil Gavaskar [ Images ] and Mohammad Azharuddin [ Images ].

Anil Kumble [ Images ] was playing his 50th Test at home soil. He became fifth Indian after Kapil Dev [ Images ] (65), Sunil Gavaskar (65), Dilip Vengsarkar (54) and Sachin Tendulkar [ Images ] (54) to do so. Interestingly Kumble is alone in not having captained India once.

Inzamam won his first toss against India in six attempts.

When Yasir Hameed [ Images ] and Shahid Afridi [ Images ] opened Pakistan innings today at Bangalore, it was the 28th opening pair being employed by Pakistan in 49 Tests since 2000 - an average of 1.75 Test for each opening pair, which is the highest for any country. The accompanying table has the details:

	Ave. Tests per opening pair
Australia [ Images ] - 4 opening pairs in 62 Tests	15.50
England [ Images ] - 9 opening pairs in 68 Tests	7.55
Sri Lanka [ Images ] - 8 opening pairs in 51 Tests	6.37
South Africa [ Images ] - 12 opening pairs in 61 Tests	5.08
West Indies [ Images ] - 13 opening pairs in 61 Tests	4.69
New Zealand [ Images ] - 14 opening pairs in 43 Tests	3.07
India - 18 opening pairs in 54 Tests	3.00
Bangladesh - 13 opening pairs in 36 Tests	2.76
Zimbabwe - 15 opening pairs in 40 Tests	2.66
Pakistan - 28 opening pairs in 49 Tests	1.75

Shahid Afridi recorded his fifth duck in 17th Test - his second against India in four Tests.

The catch of Afridi was 123rd for Rahul Dravid [ Images ]. With this he moved ahead of Australia's Greg Chappell [ Images ] and West Indian Viv Richards [ Images ], who each has 122 catches to his credit. Now only Mark Waugh [ Images ] (181 catches in 128 Tests), Mark Taylor (157 in 104), Allan Border [ Images ] (156 in 156), Brian Lara [ Images ] (147 in 112) and Stephen Fleming [ Images ] (130 in 91) is ahead of Dravid.

Inzamam (184*) was scoring 21st century of his career - his second against India in eight Tests.

Inzamam became fifth player to score a century in his 100th Test. Inzamam's innings is easily the highest among the batsmen who have achieved this distinction. The following table lists the batsmen hitting a ton on their hundredth appearance:

Score	Batsman	Opponent, Venue	Season	Result
104 & dnb	Colin Cowdrey (Eng)	v Australia, Birmingham	1968	Drawn
145 & dnb	Javed Miandad (Pak)	v India, Lahore [ Images ]	1989-90	Drawn
149 & dnb	Gordon Greenidge (WI)	v England, St.John's	1989-90	WI won
105 & dnb	Alec Stewart (Eng)	v West Indies, Manchester	2000	Drawn
184*	Inzamam-ul-Haq [ Images ] (Pak)	v India, Bangalore	2004-05	In progress

Note: Cowdrey and Miandad also scored a century each in their first Test. Cowdrey - likewise Inzamam- was captaining his side in the 100th Test.

Inzamam's innings is now the highest by a Pakistani captain against India, bettering the 168 (unbeaten) by Zaheer Abbas at Lahore in 1984-85.

Inzamam's innings is also the highest by any batsman at Bangalore, obliterating the 177 by Sachin Tendulkar against Australia in 1997-98.

Inzamam became leading run-scorer for Pakistan in AWAY matches when his score reached 138 runs. He surpassed Javed Miandad's aggregate of 4,351 runs (from 64 appearances).

Younis Khan [ Images ] scored his eighth hundred - his second in successive Tests. He had also made 147 in the first innings of Kolkata [ Images ] Test.

The 316-run unbroken partnership between Younis Khan and Inzamam-ul-Haq is the highest partnership for any wicket against India in India. The previous highest partnership was 267 runs for the fourth wicket between West Indies' Gerry Gomez and Clyde Walcott at Delhi [ Images ] in 1948-49.

The previous highest partnership for any wicket for Pakistan against India in India was of 246 runs between Hanif Mohammad and Saeed Ahmed at Mumbai [ Images ] (Brabourne) in 1960-61. Incidentally the previous highest third wicket stand against India in India for any country was 222 (unbeaten) between John Reid & Bert Sutcliffe for New Zealand at Delhi in 1955-56 and also between Kim Hughes and Allan Border for Australia at Chennai in 1979-80.

Inzamam-ul-Haq also completed his 1,000 runs as Pakistan's skipper during his innings. By taking 13 Tests (and 22 innings), Inzamam became the second fastest among the Pakistanis to aggregate 1,000 runs as a captain after Salim Malik who took 11 Tests (and 19 innings) to reach this landmark. Just for the record, Don Bradman needed only 6 Tests and 11 innings to complete his 1,000 runs as captain.

Statistical highlights, Day 1

Stars spotted!