Virender Sehwag's run aggregate of 544 runs in the series is the highest by an Indian in a home series against Pakistan. He went past Sunil Gavaskar's series aggregate of 529 runs (in six Tests) in the 1979-80 series.
Sehwag's aggregate is also the highest by an Indian in a three-match Test series. The previous record was on the name of VVS Laxman, who had made 503 runs in three Tests against Australia in 2000-01.
Sehwag got run-out for the first time in his career in his 56th innings.
Sachin Tendulkar (when on 5) became the leading run-scorer for India surpassing Sunil Gavaskar's run aggregate of 10,122 from 125 Tests (and 214 innings). Tendulkar was playing his 123rd Test and 198th innings. Now only two Australians -- Allan Border (11,174) and Steve Waugh (10,927) have aggregated more runs in a Test career.
Sourav Ganguly managed to aggregate only three runs in the match (1 in first innings and 2 in second innings). This is the worst-ever batting performance in a match by an Indian captain against Pakistan. The accompanying table gives details of worst batting performances by an Indian captain against Pakistan:
| Captain |
Inns1 |
Inns2 |
Runs |
Venue |
Season |
| SC Ganguly |
1 |
2 |
3 |
Bangalore |
2004-05 |
| BS Bedi |
4 |
0* |
4 |
Karachi |
1978-79 |
| BS Bedi |
4 |
1 |
5 |
Lahore |
1978-79 |
| MH Mankad |
6 |
1 |
7 |
Bahawalpur |
1954-55 |
| N Kapil Dev |
9 |
2 |
11 |
Bangalore |
1986-87 |
| K Srikkanth |
10 |
3 |
13 |
Sialkot |
1989-90 |
Sehwag became the first Indian batsman to end up on the losing side despite scoring a double century. Interestingly the previous highest individual score for a losing Indian side was also held by Sehwag himself - 195 v Australia at Melbourne in 2003-04. The previous highest score by an Indian at home in a losing effort was the 177 by Sachin Tendulkar against Australia also at this ground in 1997-98.
Ganguly ended the series with only 48 runs in five innings at an average of 9.60 -- easily his worst performance in a Test series. He thus became only the fourth Indian batsman to average below 10 in a series (of at least 3 Tests) despite having a career average of 40-plus. The other Indians to suffer this fate are Polly Umrigar (43 runs in 7 innings @ 6.14 v England in England in 1952), Mohinder Amarnath (1 run in 6 innings @ 0.17 v West Indies in India in 1983-84) and Mohammad Azharuddin (42 runs in 5 innings @8.40 v England in England in 1996).
Sachin Tendulkar and Inzamam-ul-Haq achieved an amazing record on their name. It was for the 35th time Tendulkar was appearing in a lost match, which is a record for India. He was earlier at level with 34 lost matches with Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar. Interestingly Tendulkar has also appeared in 38 won Tests for India -- most by an Indian player. On the other hand, this was 42nd won Test for Inzamam which took him past Wasim Akram's tally of 41 Tests for Pakistan. Inzamam has also appeared in 33 lost matches for Pakistan. So Tendulkar and Inzamam now hold the dual record of appearing in most won and lost Tests for India and Pakistan respectively. New Zealand's Stephen Fleming and Bangladesh's Habibul Bashar are the only other players to have achieved this distinction.
The match aggregate of 1494 runs (for the loss of 32 wickets) is a new record in India -- Pakistan matches. The previous record was of 1433 runs (for the loss of 39 wickets) made in the previous Test at Kolkata.
Younis Khan won Man of the Match award for the second time in his career. His other award was against West Indies at Sharjah in 2001-02.
Virender Sehwag won Player of the Series award for the third time in his career. The other two occasions were v Pakistan in Pakistan in 2003-04 and v South Africa in India in 2004-05.
Also read:
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- Inzy gets one-Test ban for dissent
- Laxman, Kumble not in ODI team
- Tendulkar surpasses Gavaskar
- Doomed by defence
- Sehwag, the lone warrior?
- Winners of predict MOM contest!
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