Australia v India - 4th Test, Day 3: Facts and figures
After spending close to two days chasing leather on the field, it was time for the Indian batsmen to give their Australian counterparts the same medicine, piling on the runs and not letting any Australian bowler take control of the game.
The overnight pair of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma began patiently in the morning, and after negotiating the first hour, started to increase the scoring rate. Just when things looked good for the visitors, Rohit went for one sweep too many and got himself castled for 53 off the bowling off Nathan Lyon, thereby bringing an end to the 97-run stand. Rahul, meanwhile, was slowly beginning to get rid of the ghosts of his debut Test, reaching his maiden Test fifty before Lunch.
Giving the opener company was his captain Virat Kohli, who once again looked to be in sublime touch. Rahul showed very little nerves in his nineties and brought up his first Test hundred, courtesy a classy back foot punch off the bowling of Mitchell Starc. However, he could only add 10 more runs as he was caught and bowled by Mitchell Starc for 110.
Despite that loss, Kohli continued to play some beautiful shots and brought up his fourth hundred of the series, and his 10th overall, in the 97th over of the innings. Shane Watson then struck twice in the same over, sending back Ajinkya Rahane (13) and Suresh Raina (0) handing the initiative back to the home team.
Wriddhiman Saha (13 off 50), playing his second Test of the series, gave his skipper good company as India saw off the day to finish on 342 for 5, still trailing Australia by 230 runs.
Important numbers from Day 3:
639* – Number of runs scored by Kohli in the current series. He is now the leading run-scorer for India in a single Test series in Australia, overtaking Rahul Dravid, who scored 619 runs in 2003/04 series Down Under.
1 – Kohli has become the first cricketer to score three centuries in his first three innings as Test captain, breaking Greg Chappell’s record who had two centuries in his first two innings as captain, against West Indies at Brisbane in 1975.
86 – Number of years taken by a visiting batsman to score 4 tons in a series in Australia.Virat Kohli became the third on Thursday, after Wally Hammond of England (1928/29) and Bert Sutcliffe of New Zealand (1924/25).
2 – Kohli is only the second Indian to score four centuries in an overseas series. Sunil Gavaskar was the first to achieve that feat, in the 1970/71 tour to the West Indies.
2 – Kohli is now joint second with Mohammad Azharuddin for the fastest to score 10 Test hundreds by an Indian in Test cricket. The 26-year-old achieved the feat in only his 58th Test innings.The record is held by Virender Sehwag who got to the mark in 55 innings.
7 – Total Number of centuries scored by both captains in the current series, most ever in a Test series.
23 – Number of years since an Indian opener has faced 250 or more deliveries in a single innings in Australia. KL Rahul played 262 balls today for his 110. The last opener to achieve that feat was Ravi Shastri in the 1991/92 tour.
4 – KL Rahul became the fourth Indian batsman to score his first Test hundred in his third Test innings. The previous three were Sunil Gavaskar, Sanjay Manjrekar and Ravichandran Ashwin.
7 – Number of ducks registered by Suresh Raina in Test cricket after 30 innings. Only Pankaj Roy has fared worse than him among top order batsmen, with the same number of ducks in 24 innings.
16 – Number of Test innings after which Shane Watson has taken more than one wicket in a Test innings. He picked up two wickets on Day 3. The last time he achieved this feat was back in November 2011 against South Africa in Cape Town, where he picked up a five-wicket haul.
Note: Inputs taken from statistician Mohandas Menon