NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Statistical Highlights 3rd match: India v New Zealand at Gwalior on 11-11-99

Mohandas Menon

• This match was the 1524th in Limited Over international (LOI) history.

• This match was India's 423rd and New Zealand's 335th in LOIs.

• This match was the 55th meeting between the two sides.

• This match was the 9th to be played at this venue. India has played seven matches, while it was New Zealand's first at this venue.

• India was playing in its 41st match during this calendar year of 1999. This was the maximum played any team in a calendar year. Last year India had played in 40 matches.

• Sachin Tendulkar's one run off 23 balls (S/r: 4.35) was his worst batting performance of his career in terms of strike-rate where he has scored atleast one run. His previous worst performance was against South Africa at Port Elizabeth on 2-2-1997 when he scored a single in 14 balls (S/r: 7.14). Among the other worst performances where he failed to open his account was his 0 in 10 balls against Pakistan at Toronto on 18-9-1997.

• Incidentally it was the worst performance in terms of batting strike-rate by an Indian batsman in LOIs. Previously Nayan Mongia (1 run of 22 balls; S/r: 4.55) against Sri Lanka at Sharjah on 9-11-1998 had the worst batting strike-rate for an Indian batsman in LOIs.

• Saurav Ganguly's unbeaten 153 was the his ninth LOI hundred in 124 matches. Among left-handers only Pakistani Saeed Anwar 17 hundreds (in 187 matches) and West Indian Brian Lara 13 (in 162 matches) have more hundreds than Ganguly.

• It was the fourth highest individual score made against New Zealand, after Tendulkar's 186*, South African Dave Callaghan's 169* and Englishman David Gower's 158.

• It was the second highest score by a left-hander against New Zealand after David Gower's 158 at Brisbane on 15-1-1983.

• It was the 22nd score of over 150 in LOIs. West Indian Viv Richards remains the only one to do it on three occasions, while Ganguly joins Lara to become the only ones to do it on two occasions.

• Ganguly's 153* was now the highest at this venue. The previous highest being the 138* by West Indian Desmond Haynes against England on 27-10-1989 and the 134* by Navjot Singh Sidhu also against England on 4-3-1993.

• Ganguly joined Sunil Gavaskar to become the second Indian batsman to carry his bat throughout a completed innings of 50-or-more overs - on two seperate occasions. The other Indians to do it once are Manoj Prabhakar and Tendulkar.

• New Zealand became the first team in LOI history to concede three successive individual scores of 150-plus. Tendulkar (186*) and Dravid (153) did so at Hyderabad, while Ganguly made 153* in this match. India held the previous record when it conceded two scores of 150-plus in successive matches during the Independence Cup tournament in May, 1997. Sri Lankan Jayasuriya scored 151* at Mumbai on 17-5-1997 and then in the next match Pakistani Saeed Anwar at Chennai on 21-5-1997 recorded the highest ever individual score of 194 runs.

• The unbeaten 119 run partnership between Ganguly and Robin Singh was second highest by any team against New Zealand for the sixth wicket. The best still remains as the 127 also by Indians Azharuddin and Ajay Sharma at Baroda (MBP) on 17-12-1988.

• The previous highest for the sixth wicket at this venue was the 57 by West Indians Carl Hooper and Eldine Baptiste on 22-1-1988.

• Dravid's catch of Spearman was his 50th as a fielder in 99 matches. He becomes the sixth Indian and the 36th fielder in LOI history to do so. Dravid by doing so in his 99th match as a fielder, reached the milestone the quickest (i.e. in terms of least matches) by any Indian. Mohammad Azharuddin need 128 matches to achieve his in 1991-92. Dravid incidentally becomes the only sixth fielder to do so in less than 100 matches. Sri Lankan Roshan Mahanama took his 50th catch in a record 90 matches in 1993-94.

• The catch was also Dravid's 19th for the calendar year. He equals the tally of Australian Ricky Ponting - the maximum by a fieldsman in 1999.

• The 99 run partnership between Craig Spearman and Astle was the seventh by an opening pair missing the 100-run mark by one run in LOIs. This occurred for the second occasion for New Zealand when Martin Crowe and John Wright also put on 99 against Australia at Auckland on 10-3-1990 for the first wicket.

• Nathan Astle (97) when on 24 reached his 3000th run in 94 matches and 93 innings. He becomes the fifth Kiwi batsman and the 58th in LOI history to do so. At the end of the match Astle has 3073 runs (avg 34.14).

• Astle (3073 runs and 64 wickets) also becomes the first New Zealander to achieve the all-rounder's double of 3000 runs and 50-plus wickets in LOIs. He also becomes the 17th all-rounder to do so in LOIs. By reaching this double in his 94th match, Astle became the third quickest after West Indian Viv Richards (80th match) and Pakistani Aamer Sohail (93rd).

• Astle who has the maximum hundreds (4) by any other visiting batsman in India, now also has the maximum 90s by a visiting batsman in India. He equals the tally of two nineties by Australian Allan Border, West Indian Richie Richardson and Sri Lankan Aravinda deSilva.

• It was Astle's fifth score in the nineties. Only Martin Crowe among Kiwis has more scores - six - in the nineties.

• Astle when on 49 also became the highest run-getter for New Zealand against India. He bettered the record of 637 runs by Ken Rutherford in 18 matches. At the end of the match Astle has 678 runs (avg 48.43) in 14 matches, followed by Fleming with 656 runs (avg 36.44) in 22 matches.

• Ganguly won his 17th man of the match award of his career in his 124th match. Now among Indians only Tendulkar (35) and Azharuddin (18) have won more such awards.