Numerical Nuggets From the Mumbai Test

Did you know Merv Dillon and Pedro Collins share a unique (but dubious) batting record? Do you know who is now the master of all "caught & bowled" dismissals? Why was the record partnership between Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Sanjay Bangar so special? Who are the only three players to debut and appear in their 100th Tests on the same cricket ground?

All these questions were answered in the first Test between the West Indies and India at Mumbai, where the visitors faced a crushing and humbling defeat. CaribbeanCricket.com statistician Zito sifts through the numbers and finds some nuggets from the Mumbai Test:

Carl Hooper became the sixth West Indian and the 27th player overall to appear in 100 Test matches. He made his Test debut at the same ground (Mumbai) in December 1987, thus making him the third player to debut and appear in his 100th Test at the same venue. The other players are Allan Border (Aus) and Javed Miandad (Pak) at Melbourne and Lahore respectively.

Sanjay Bangar and Virender Sehwag put on 201 runs for first wicket, bettering the previous best for India against the West Indies of 153 runs between Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan at the same ground in 1978. This partnership was also the best for first wicket at any ground in Mumbai that hosted Test match, the previous best was the 194 runs between Gavaskar and Chauhan against Australia in 1979.

This was the seventh 200-plus partnership against the West Indies in Tests.

Merv Dillon's dismissal of Sanjay Bangar in the 1st innings took his wicket tally to 50 in 14 away Test match appearances.

Sehwag, playing in his 10th match, scored his third century and the highest score of his career of 147. His previous best was the 106 against England at Nottingham in August of this year. Sehwag also became the second Indian after Hemu Adhikari (114* in Delhi, 1948) to score a maiden century against the West Indies.

Sachin Tendulkar passed 1000 runs for this calendar year of 2002 when he reached 14 in the first innings. He now has 1021 runs in 12 matches. He became the third batsman to do so after Rahul Dravid (1178 runs in 12 matches) and Michael Vaughan (1031 runs in 10 matches).

By making 100*, Rahul Dravid became the only third batsman in history to score four Test hundreds in succession. His sequence began this summer in the Test against England, 115 at Nottingham, 148 at Leeds and 217 at The Oval. The other players to have scored four hundreds in succession are Jack Fingleton (Aus) in 1935-36 to 1936-37, Alan Melville (SAf) in 1938-39 to 1947. The record for most hundred in succession is five by Everton Weekes (WI) in 1947-48 to 1948-49.

Merv Dillon scored his 22nd Test duck in 28 matches and 51 innings. He has the worst frequency percentage of duck (43.14%) of all batsmen in Test cricket. His teammate, Pedro Collins, in the first innings scored his 9th ducks in 14 matches and 21 innings giving him the second highest frequency percentage (42.85%) of duck among the West Indies batsmen in Test cricket.

Zaheer Khan in his 21st match recorded his best bowling figures of his career (4-41). He betters his previous best of 4-76 v Sri Lanka at Kandy in 2001.

Anil Kumble equalled the Test record of the left-arm spinner Derek Underwood (Eng) for most 'caught & bowled' victims. Kumble's 'caught & bowled' dismissal of Chanderpaul was his 20th in 74 matches. Underwood has 20 'caught & bowled' victims in 86 Test matches.

Anil Kumble now has 27 wickets in 5 matches at Wankhede Stadium. He is now only one wicket behind Kapil Dev with 28 in 11 matches at the same ground.

West Indies' 157 was the third lowest by any visiting team at this ground.

This was the only third time India enforced a follow-on against the West Indies and this is the only instance of India winning the match. The previous instances are at Kingston in 1971 and at Delhi in 1979. This was India's second enforcement of the follow-on in its last three matches.

Harbhajan Singh recorded his second best bowling figures (7-48) of his career and the fifth best bowling figure for Indian player against West Indies, behind Kapil Dev (9-83 at Ahmedabad in 1983- 84), SP Gupte (9-102 at Kanpur in 1958-59) and ND Hirwani (8-61 & 8-75).

By beating West Indies by an innings and 112 runs, India recorded their first ever innings defeat of West Indies. This was the third highest winning margin by an innings by both teams since 1948-49.

West Indies recorded their 6th straight defeat in overseas Test match starting from the match against Sri Lanka at Galle International Stadium in 2001-02. This is West Indies?s 29th loss in overseas match since West Indies? tour of England in 1995, the full record read as 6 win, 4 draw and 29 losses.