India vs West Indies, 2nd Test Day 1 – Stats: West Indies’ world record and Ashwin’s five-wicket hauls

Blackwood was WI’s star with the bat

India trail West Indies by 70 runs after day one of the second Test thanks to Ravichandran Ashwin’s 18th Test five-wicket haul and a solid display by the visiting batsmen after Virat Kohli lost the toss at Jamaica..

After winning the toss and electing to bat first, the hosts would have been looking for a good start but the opposite happened as they lost their first three wickets for just seven runs. Only Jermaine Blackwood’s fifty and some lower-order heroics propelled them to nearly 200.

In response, India’s opener began positively and got off to a good start. Although Shikhar Dhawan fell as the partnership was 13 shy of a century, Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara saw India till the end of day’s play without any further loss and end on 126/1.

Here are some interesting numbers from the day’s play:

1 – This was the first time in the last 10 innings that Indian openers managed a fifty parternship in West Indies.

2 – Only two Indian bowlers, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar and Anil Kumble had taken a five-wicket haul in four consecutive Tests before Ravichandran Ashwin achieved it.

3 – Darren Bravo became the third West Indian No.3 to be dismissed for a golden duck against India. Alvin Kallicharan and Ramnaresh Sarwan were the other two.

4 – Ashwin’s figures of 5/52 in Jamaica is the fourth-best figures by a spinner at the venue. Anil Kumble’s holds the record with 6/78 and the other two to have better figures are Harbhajan Singh (5/13) and Danish Kaneria (5/46).

5 – The number of consecutive tosses won by Virat Kohli, who fell one short of equaling the Indian record for most consecutive Test toss wins held by Contractor, Azharuddin and Dhoni.

6 – Ravichandran Ashwin has now dismissed Marlon Samuels six times (in 11 innings) in Tests. Ed Cowan is the only batsman Ashwin has dismissed more in Tests (7) and only Muttiah Muralitharan (7) has dismissed Samuels more times in Tests.

7 – The second-lowest score for which West Indies have lost their first three wickets against India. Their worst is 1/3 at Port of Spain in 1983.

9 – In the 9 Test innings prior to this, India’s openers averaged just 7.88 with a highest of just 26.

10 – Darren Bravo's average at home in his last 7 Test innings at home. After 40 innings at home, he averages just 29.34 with a solitary century and seven fifties. Away from home, he averages 51.18 in 39 innings with six centuries and seven fifties.

29.34 – Of the 184 runs scored from the bat in WI's first innings, 54 came from sixes, which is the highest % of runs from sixes in Test history in a 150+ total. The previous-best was also by West Indies against India when 28.57% of runs off the bat were scored in sixes.

34 – The number of Tests Ashwin has taken to claim 18 five-wicket hauls in Tests. Only Sydney Barnes (24) and Waqar Younis (31) have achieved that quicker than Ashwin.

47 – The number of balls it took for Blackwood to get to his fifty. After Viv Richard’s 32-ball effort at Kingston, it is the second-fastest fifty by an WI batsman in Tests between West Indies and India.

52.3 – This was the shortest 1st innings for WI against India after winning the toss, beating the 72.5 overs they played out in Port of Spain in 1971 and Chennai in 1979.

75* – KL Rahul now has the third-highest score by an Indian batsman in their first innings in WI. No Indian opener has ever scored a century and Ajay Jadeja’s 96

87 – The opening partnership between Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul is the sixth-highest by an Indian opening pair in West Indies in Tests. The highest is Wasim Jaffer and Virender Sehwag’s 159 at St Lucia in 2006.

1995 – The 81-run fourth-wicket partnership between Marlon Samuels and Jermaine Blackwood is the first time since 1995 that West Indies have put more than 50 for the fourth wicket after losing the first three wickets for under 10 runs. In 1995, Brian Lara and Carl Hooper achieved the feat against Australia at Barbados.

2006 – Before Ashwin got it today, Harbhajan Singh was the last Indian spinner to take two or more five-wicket hauls in a Test series outside Asia. He also did it in the West Indies, back in 2006.