Thanks to their newly unearthed talent and debutant, Mayank Agarwal, India managed to stabilize their overnight collapse at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. However, Pat Cummins continued his remarkable perseverance to claim more wickets this morning. Just when the eighth wicket fell, Virat Kohli decided he had seen to much and sent in Australia to bat.
Defending 399 runs, the Indian bowlers were always on the top of the hosts and ended the day needing just two more wickets for a win. Everyone chipped in with valuable contributions with the ball, Ravindra Jadeja standing out with his three hard-earned wickets. Cummins’ vigil has taken the game to day 5 but has only delayed the inevitable.
Here are some numbers from the fourth day’s play at the ‘G.
- Jasprit Bumrah has taken 47 wickets on away soil this year, a record for an Indian bowler in overseas Tests.
- It is also the highest number of wickets taken by an Indian bowler in his debut year.
- India have taken 255 Test wickets this year, beating their previous highest record of 237 wickets, taken in 1979.
- After the Sydney Test against England in January, Australia have played 9 Test matches in a row without reaching the 400 run mark in an innings.
- Rishabh Pant’s dismissal of Tim Paine equalled him with Syed Kirmani and Naren Tamane for the record of most dismissals by an Indian in a Test series.
- 6/27 and 60*, Pat Cummins has notched both his best bowling in an innings and his highest Test score in the second innings of this Test match.
- In this series, Jasprit Bumrah has induced a false stroke or a missed stroke in 25% of the balls he has bowled.
- Since 1990, 34 times a batsman has scored 1,000+ runs in a Shield Cricket season. Only two of those have come in the last decade.
- Ravindra Jadeja sits at 190 wickets after 40 Tests. The next best left-arm bowler at this mark is Mitchell Johnson with 175 wickets.
