The Hindu : Samuels' maiden first-class century

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 03, 2002

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Sport - Cricket

Samuels' maiden first-class century

By Mohandas Menon

** Shivnarine Chanderpaul's 140 equals his personal best in Tests which also came against India at Georgetown in April.

** Playing in his 29th first-class match and 46th innings since his debut in May 1997 for Jamaica, Marlon Samuels has the distinction of scoring his maiden first-class hundred in a Test match. For the record, Samuels' previous highest first-class score was 84 for a West Indian XI against Zimbabwe `A' at Kwekwe, Zimbabwe in July 2001.

** Samuels is the fifth West Indian to score a maiden first-class hundred in a Test match. The others being: Clifford Roach (122 vs England at Bridgetown, 1929-30), Clairmonte Depeiza (122 vs Australia at Bridgetown, 1954-55), Gerry Alexander (108 vs Australia at Sydney, 1960-61) and Bernard Julien (121 vs England at Lord's, 1973).

** The three centuries in the West Indies innings (W. Hinds 100, S. Chanderpaul 140, M. Samuels 104) was the 14th instance of three or more West Indians scoring centuries in the same innings of a Test match, and they have recorded this nine times against India.

** Interestingly, West Indies has scored three centuries in an innings at this ground on three occasions - in 1958-59 and 1987-88. They remain the only Test team to do so at the Eden Gardens.

** The catch of Cuffy was V.V.S. Laxman's 50th in his 42nd match. He becomes the 10th Indian and the 75th fielder in Test cricket to reach this landmark. He became the second quickest among Indian fielders to reach this milestone. Former close-in specialist fielder Eknath Solkar holds the record as he achieved the half-century mark in his 26th Test in 1976. Following Laxman is Rahul Dravid, who took his 50th catch in 2001 in his 43rd match.

** Harbhajan Singh's five for 115 was his third five-plus wicket haul at this venue. He had two such hauls seven for 123 and six for 73 against Australia in March, 2001. He now equals former left-arm spinner Bishan Bedi's tally of three five-wicket hauls at this ground.

** The 169 runs conceded by Anil Kumble (54-9-169-3) was second most by any bowler at this ground. Pace bowler Dattu Phadkar (43-6-173-0) holds this dubious distinction, which came against West Indies during the 1958-59 series.

** West Indies' 497 was the only fourth highest total made by a visiting team on Indian soil. Since 1986, there were just three occasions in 63 Test matches in India, where the visiting teams have made big scores - 574-7d by Australia at Chennai in September 1986, 530-5d by the West Indies

at Kolkata in December 1987 and 503-6d by Zimbabwe at Nagpur in November 2000.

** Sachin Tendulkar's hundred was the 31st of his career in 103 Test matches and his 15th at home. Tendulkar's hundred was his highest at this venue in six matches and 11 innings. His previous best was the 79 against Australia in March 1998. Kanpur remains the only major Test ground in India where Tendulkar is yet to record a Test hundred.

** Tendulkar, with 1,230 runs, has now become the highest run scorer during this calendar year. He went past the tally of 1,226 runs of Rahul Dravid.

** The unbeaten partnership of 108 runs between Tendulkar and V.V.S. Laxman was the best for India against the West Indies at this venue. The previous best stand of 98 runs was between Ravi Shastri and Dilip Vengsarkar in December 1987.

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