A dominating performance, indeed!

By Mohandas Menon

** India becomes the sixth Test team in history to make a come- back to win a three-match series after losing the opening match. The other teams being: England v South Africa in 1888; South Africa v New Zealand in 1994-95; Pakistan v Zimbabwe in 1994-95; Sri Lanka in Pakistan in 1995-96, Sri Lanka v New Zealand in 1997-98 and England v Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka 2001. This was the first such defeat for Australia in Tests.

** This win by two wickets equals India's narrowest in terms of wickets in Tests. India had beaten the same team by the same margin at Mumbai's Brabourne Stadium in October 1964.

** Harbhajan Singh (15 for 217) now occupies the second position among Indian bowlers and the 12th position among all Test bowlers for maximum wickets in a Test. Leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani (16 for 137), against West Indies in January 1988 at Chepauk, has taken more wickets in a Test match for India.

** It was also the fifth best match figures by any bowler against Australia and the previous best by an Indian bowler against Australia was the 14 for 124 by off-spinner Jasu Patel at Kanpur in December 1959.

** Harbhajan's eight for 84 in the second innings was the second best figures by an Indian bowler against Australia after Jasu Patel's nine for 69 at Kanpur in 1959.

** Curiously enough, the last bowler to take eight or more wickets in an innings against Australia was Kapil Dev when he claimed eight for 106 at Adelaide in December 1985 and the last spinner was Jasu Patel (nine for 69).

** Harbhajan's 32 wickets in this series was the fourth highest in a three-match Test series after the 35 wickets by England's pace bowler George Lohmann (in 1895-96 in South Africa), 34 by England paceman Syd Barnes (in 1912 against South Africa) and 33 wickets by New Zealand's Richard Hadlee (in 1985- 86 in Australia). However his tally was the best by a spinner in a three-match series bettering the 30 wickets by Pakistani leg- spinner Abdul Qadir (in 1987-88 against England).

** Harbhajan also went past left-arm spinner Bishan Bedi's 31 wickets (in 5 matches in Australia in 1977-78) - the maximum wickets in a series by an Indian bowler against Australia.

** Harbhajan has now taken 28 wickets in the last two matches. Only England's Jim Laker (11 at Leeds and 19 at Manchester - against Australia in July 1956) has taken more wickets (30) than Harbhajan, in two successive Test matches.

** Meanwhile, Harbhajan's 32 wickets out of the 50 Australian wickets that fell during this series, represents 64 per cent of the total wickets taken by Indian bowlers. This was Test cricket's most dominating performance by an individual bowler in a series. He bettered the previous best such performances by New Zealand's Richard Hadlee (33/56, 58.93 %) in Australia in 1985-86 and England's George Lohmann (35/60, 58.33%) in South Africa in 1895-96.

** V.V.S. Laxman (503 runs) during his second innings score of 66 became the first Indian batsman to aggregate over 500 in a three- match Test series. He bettered the 447 scored by Sunil Gavaskar in Pakistan in 1978-79.

** However, Laxman failed to surpass the 557 runs made by Pakistani batsman Salim Malik in Pakistan in 1994-95 - which remains the maximum scored by a batsman in a three-match Test series against Australia.

** When Mark Waugh held Ganguly, he became the third fieldsman in Test history (all Australians) to take 150 catches. He now has 152 catches in 111 matches, with only Mark Taylor (157 catches in 104 matches) and Allan Border (156 catches in 156 matches) ahead of him.

** Hayden becomes the first batsman to score a double hundred against India - for a losing side. The previous highest was by Zimbabwean Andy Flower had made an unbeaten 183 when his team had lost the Delhi Test in November last year.

** Australia after winning a record 16 Tests in a row since October 1999, has now lost two consecutive Tests for the first time since March 1999 when the West Indies won two in a row at Kingston (by 10 wickets) and at Bridgetown (by 1 wicket). Interestingly the last occasion India won two consecutive matches in the same series was when it beat Australia at Chennai and Calcutta in March 1998. India had recently beaten Bangladesh at Dhaka and Zimbabwe at Delhi in November last year in successive matches but in two different series.

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