England v India 2014 - 2nd Test, day 4: Facts and figures
India started day 4 of the 2nd Test against England at Lord’s with Murali Vijay, on 59*, and MS Dhoni, on 12*, resuming the innings; the overnight score was 169/4 with a lead of 145 runs. It was important for the two batsmen to hang around as long as possible in order to stretch the lead closer to 300. But Dhoni, who was struggling to get the ball off the square, nicked Liam Plunkett to Ian Bell at 2nd slip within the 1st hour of the 4th day’s play, managing just 7 more runs to his overnight score of 12.
Stuart Binny got a promotion in the batting order, walking out at No. 7 ahead of Ravindra Jadeja, but he failed to make proper use of his opportunity: he was out to a reckless shot for 0 off the bowling of Moeen Ali. Vijay, who batted beautifully throughout his innings, fell shortly after, for 95, agonizingly close to what would have been a well-deserved hundred.
With India just 211 runs ahead when Vijay walked back to the pavilion, the visitors needed important contributions from Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar to set England a competitive total. Knowing that defending wouldn’t be of too much use with runs being the priority, Jadeja teed off and took the England bowlers head on.
His approach paid off as India went into lunch, without any more wickets falling, on 267/7 with a lead of 243 runs.
- 13 - Murali Vijay is the 13th Indian batsman to score more than 300 runs in a Test series in England.
- 1 - Ishant Sharma is the only player from both sides in this game to not have a Test fifty to his name.
- 43 - Before today, 43 was Ravindra Jadeja’s highest Test score.
- 10 - No. of centuries scored by an Indian batsman in the third innings of a Test match in England.
- 332 - The highest total successfully chased down by England in Test match cricket. It is the only time that they have chased a total above the 319 that India have set on this occasion.
- 1 - The number of Tests India have lost after setting the opposition a target of over 300 in the 4th innings.
- 209 - Number of runs scored by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in this series until now. He just has to score 7 more runs in this series to overtake Syed Kirmani for the most number of runs by an Indian batsman batting at No. 9 or below in a Test series.
- 3 - India’s score of 342 in their 2nd innings is their 3rd highest third innings score at Lord’s. They had scored 378 and 369 in 1952 and 1982 respectively but ended up losing both those matches.