Tendulkar crosses the 7,000 milestone

By Mohandas Menon

** Virender Sehwag and Deep Dasgupta became the 238th and 239th players to appear for India in Tests.

** Rahul Dravid was opening the Indian batting for the fifth time in four matches in Tests and on all occasions it was against South Africa - at Kolkata (31 & 23; in November 1996), at Cape Town (2; in January 1997) and at Bangalore (17 & 18; in March 2000).

** Sourav Ganguly (14, on 3) became the 14th Indian batsman and the 114th in Tests to reach the milestone of 3000 runs. He was appearing in his 47th match and 80th innings of his career.

** Sachin Tendulkar (155, on 81) became the second Indian after Sunil Gavaskar (10122 runs) and the 21st batsman in Test history to reach the landmark of 7000 runs. He was appearing in his 85th Test and 136th innings of his career. During his innings he went past the aggregate of England's Sir Len Hutton (6971, 79 matches and 138 innings) and Australia's Sir Don Bradman (6996, 52 matches and 80 innings). He now has 7074 runs (avg 57.98).

** Tendulkar's batting average of 57.98 was an all- time best among batsman with over 5000 Test runs. Only Bradman (6996, 99.94), England's Ken Barrington (6806, 58.67) and Englishman Walter Hammond (7249, 58.46) have a higher batting average than Tendulkar at this stage of his career.

** The 220 run partnership for the fifth wicket between Tendulkar and Sehwag bettered the following landmarks:

* on 73, the pair bettered the previous best for the fifth wicket at this ground, which was the 72 put on by New Zealand's Stephen Fleming and Craig McMillan on November 2000.

* on 88, the pair bettered the previous best for the fifth wicket for India against South Africa, which was the 87 put on by Mohammad Azharuddin and Pravin Amre at Durban in November 1992.

* on 116, the pair bettered the previous best for any wicket at this ground, which was the 115 for fourth wicket put on by South African's Jacques Kallis and Neil McKenzie against New Zealand on November 2000.

* on 205, the pair bettered India's previous best for the fifth wicket in an away Test match, which was the 204 runs put on by Sunil Gavaskar and Brijesh Patel against the West Indies at Port of Spain in March 1976.

** The partnership was India's second best for the fifth wicket. The best still remains as the famous 376 runs put on by V.V.S. Laxman and Dravid against Australia at Kolkata earlier this year in March.

** The pair just failed to better India's best partnership for any wicket against South Africa which still remains as the 222 runs for the sixth wicket between Tendulkar and Azharuddin at Cape Town in January 1997.

** Tendulkar's 155 was his 26th Test hundred and 49th of his first-class career in 172 matches.

** Virender Sehwag (105) became the eighth Indian batsman and 48th batsman to register a debut hundred in their very first Test innings. The last Indian before Sehwag to achieve this feat was Ganguly, when he scored 131 against England at Lord's in June 1996. Incidentally, Sehwag became the only fifth batsman to record a first-innings debut hundred against South Africa. England's Peter May, India's Pravin Amre and Pakistani's Ali Naqvi and Azhar Mohmood are the others to achieve this feat.

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