India vs West Indies, 3rd Test Day 4 Stats: Bhuvneshwar Kumar's magic sets up pulsating finale
After rain had dampened spirits on the previous day, the match appeared to be heading in only one direction. However, the Indian bowlers persisted relentlessly in their quest for breakthroughs.
Ishant Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin sent back both overnight batsmen lending their experience to the team’s cause. Admittedly, the pacer had the rub off the green going his way in Darren Bravo’s case.
But, the visitors seized upon the opening as comeback man Bhuvneshwar Kumar made optimum use of the second new-ball to shred the West Indies batting lineup. Extracting prodigious swing, the 26-year old troubled the opposition with his impeccable control.
Buoyed by the dramatic change of events, India’s batsmen announced their intentions from the first ball itself. Despite losing three wickets in a cluster, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma ensured that the lead propelled towards 285.
Let us take a look at some fascinating statistics from the day’s play.
0 – Teams whose batsmen average lower than India’s at the number 3 position since January 2014. Virat Kohli himself came in at one down after Cheteshwar Pujara was dropped for this match.
1 – Fifty-plus scores for Shikhar Dhawan from his last 12 Test innings (84 in Antigua) since his successive centuries against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in 2015.
3 – Five-wicket hauls for Bhuvneshwar in his Test career, so far. Apart from this one in the Caribbean, two of those had come in England during 2014 in successive matches.
7 – Combined runs scored by Kohli from both innings (3, 4) which is his joint-lowest in a Test match when he has batted twice. The other occasion came at Old Trafford where his scores read 0 and 7.
19 – Rounded-off average of Kohli at number three in Tests. In contrast, he averages more than 40 at numbers 4, 5 and 6.
23 – Consecutive Innings in which West Indies’ top two wickets failed to add 50 or more runs against India before this one, both home and away. Their previous such effort came way back in 2006 at Basseterre.
51 – Deliveries needed for Bhuvneshwar to pick up his five wickets. In the latter phase of his spell, he conceded just 14 runs with 4 maidens.
78 – Runs from KL Rahul’s bat in this Test match. Even as other batsmen found it difficult to force the pace, he scored those off 90 balls at a strike-rate of 86.66.
91 – Number of balls for which Bhuvneshwar went wicket-less in the innings. But, he continued to pile up the pressure by adopting an exemplary length and gave away only 19 runs.
191 – Wickets taken by Ashwin in Tests, thus far*. The Tamil Nadu all-rounder overtook Erapalli Prasanna’s tally in 14 fewer matches and is now only behind Harbhajan Singh in the list of Indian off-spinners.
2008 – The last occasion when an Indian number three tallied less than 10 runs before Kohli. Rahul Dravid had managed 7 (3, 4) against England in Chennai.
2012 – The previous instance when all of West Indies’ top five batsmen contributed 20 runs or more in a Test innings at home. Bridgetown was the venue with Australia being the opposition then.
(*All statistics are accurate as of day 4’s close)