New milestones for Murali

By Mohandas Menon

** The first-wicket partnership of 107 runs between S.S. Das and S. Ramesh was India's first century partnership for this wicket on foreign soil since March 1994 when Nayan Mongia and Navjot Singh Sidhu put on 102 against New Zealand at Hamilton. That match, incidentally, was Kapil Dev's last Test and since then India has appeared in 25 Tests on foreign soil without a single 100-plus partnership for the opening wicket.

** With the Indian openers putting on 97 in the first innings, an opportunity was missed by the pair to record two 100- plus partnerships for the first wicket in each innings of the Test match. Once before too this feat was missed when Nari Contractor and Pankaj Roy put on 93 and 99 for the first wicket in each innings against the West Indies at Kanpur in December 1958.

** Rahul Dravid (36, when on 3) became the eighth Indian and 70th batsman in Test history to reach the milestone of 4000 runs. Playing in his 48th Test and 84th innings Dravid became the second quickest among eight Indians to do so. The record still remains with Sunil Gavaskar who reached his landmark in 43 Tests and 81 innings against the West Indies at Calcutta in 1978-79. Dravid now occupies the 12th position in terms of matches and the joint 13th in terms of innings in Test history among the 70 batsmen to have had the distinction of reaching this milestone in least matches and innings.

** Ramesh's wicket was Muralitharan's 50th against India in 12 matches. He thus became the 16th Test bowler to do so against India. For the record, Pakistani Imran Khan has the maximum wickets against India - 94 wickets in 23 matches.

** Muralitharan became the first Sri Lankan to take a 10-wicket haul in a match against India. Pace bowler Rumesh Ratnayake, at the Saravanamuttu ground, Colombo in September 1985, had taken nine wickets for 125 runs.

** This was the first 10-wicket haul at this ground in 18 matches since the first Test played in March 1984. The previous best match performance came from South African left-arm pace bowler Brett Schultz who had figures of nine for 106 in September 1993.

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