Sport - Cricket

Merv Dillon's best effort

By Mohandas Menon

** Zaheer Khan's quickfire 46 was his highest Test score in his 14th match, bettering the 45 against Sri Lanka at Colombo (SSC) in August last year. Zaheer's was the second highest by a visiting No. 9 batsman at this ground with South African Shaun Pollock's unbeaten 106 in March last season being the best. Before Zaheer, Syed Kirmani's 33 in April 1983 was the highest by an Indian.

** For the first time in his career, Sourav Ganguly top-scored for his team in both innings of a Test with scores of 48 and 60 not out. He became the third Indian captain to achieve this feat, the others being Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi (64 & 148) against England at Leeds in June 1967 and Sachin Tendulkar (116 & 52) versus Australia at Melbourne in December 1999. All three captains, however, ended up on the losing side. The other Indian batsman to top score in each innings of a Test at this venue was Mohinder Amarnath (91 & 80) during the 1983 series.

** Merv Dillon's match figures of eight for 123 was his career-best in his 24th match, the previous best being the seven for 91 against South Africa at Kingston in April 2001. On both occasions, the West Indies tasted victory.

** After bowling an economical spell of 18-15-3-0 on the third day of the Test, Cameron Cuffy conceded 23 runs in six overs on the fourth day, thus depriving him a place in the record books.

However, his final analysis of 24-16-26-1 (1.08 runs per over) was the third best by a West Indian pace bowler (bowling at least 24 overs) against India. Only Frank Worrell (left-arm medium pace) and Gerry Gomez (right-arm medium pace) have bowled with better economy.

Worrell had figures of 27-18-16-0 (0.59 runs per over) at this ground in March 1962 while Gomez's spell read 46.1-20-42-1 (0.91 runs per over) at Port of Spain in February 1953.

** The 10-wicket defeat margin was India's 13th such ignominy in Tests and the fourth to the West Indies after Port of Spain (1962), Kingston (1976) and the same venue (1983).

This was also India's third 10-wicket loss under Ganguly, the ones against Australia (Mumbai, March 2001) and Sri Lanka (Galle, August 2001) being the previous occasions.

** Barbados has been a happy hunting ground for the West Indies as it has won 20 of the 38 Tests played here.

However, this has been a forgettable venue for India, which lost its seventh match (including the last five) among the eight it has figured in. India has now lost more Tests only at Lord's (nine matches) and Eden Gardens, Kolkata (8).

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