The Hindu : India's 14th ten-wicket loss

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 15, 2002

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Sport - Cricket

India's 14th ten-wicket loss

By Mohandas Menon

** This match was New Zealand's 300th Test since its first in 1930. Only four other countries (England 802 Tests, Austalia 634, West Indies 392 and India 364) have appeared in more matches than New Zealand.

** This was the earliest start to a Test match in New Zealand, after the New Zealand-Pakistan encounter that began on 8th December in 1995 at Christchurch.

** Jacob Oram became the 222nd New Zealander to appear in Tests. Oram has also appeared in 25 ODIs since 2001.

** The catch of Agarkar was Nathan Astle's 50th in Tests in 56 matches. He becomes the 5th New Zealand and the 76th fielder overall to reach this landmark in Tests.

** Rahul Dravid meanwhile became the highest run-getter for India this calendar year. Dravid now has 1302 runs.

** Scott Styris who on Test debut had scores of 107 and 69 not out (vs. West Indies at Grenada in June this year) recorded his best bowling performance (3-28) of his career in his second Test match.

** Zaheer Khan's 5-53 was his best bowling performance of his career in his 23rd match. His previous best was the 4-41 against the West Indies at Mumbai in October this year. Zaheer now becomes the third Indian pace bowler to take a five-wicket haul in New Zealand after Madan Lal (5-134 at Christchurch in February 1976) and Javagal Srinath (5-95 at Hamilton in January 1999). Zaheer also joins Rusi Surti and Karshan Ghavri to become third Indian left-arm pace bowler to take a five-wicket haul in Tests. Incidentally Zaheer's figures are the best by an Indian left-arm pace away from home. The previous best was the 5-74 by Rusi Surti against Australia at Adeliade in December 1967.

** The three dismissals (2ct+1st) in New Zealand's innings was Parthiv Patel's best career wicket-keeping performance in Tests.

** VVS Laxman became the fourth Indian batsman to bag a pair (ducks in each innings) against New Zealand after ML Jaisimha (at Hyderabad in 1969), BS Chandrasekhar (at Wellington in 1976) and Rashid Patel (at Mumbai in 1988).

** Incidentally the last specialist Indian batsman to bag a pair before Laxman was Mohinder Amarnath against the West Indies at Calcutta in December 1983. Laxman is also the only third specialist Indian batsman to bag a pair in an away Test match after Pankaj Roy (vs. England at Manchester in 1952) and DN Sardesai (v West Indies at Port of Spain in 1962).

** Sachin Tendulkar (51) became the highest run scorer for the year 2002. He went past the tally of 1325 runs (in 13 matches) by England's Michael Vaughan. Tendulkar now has 1351 runs in 15 matches in 2002.

** India's total aggregate of 282 runs (161+121) in the match was its 9th lowest in Tests. Only once before in the last 35 years India has aggregated match totals less than what they have achieved in this Test, when the team made 166 runs (100+66) against South Africa at Durban in December 1996.

** The ten-wicket win was New Zealand's only third such victory in Tests. The Kiwis had beaten India at Christchurch in February 1990 and Zimbabwe at Wellington in February 1998 by the identical margin. This was also India's 14th ten-wicket loss in Tests.

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