A feast for left-handers

Stats highlights from the second day of the Bangalore Test

09-Dec-2007

Stats highlights from the second day of the Bangalore Test.

Sourav Ganguly and Irfan Pathan piled on the runs, as left-handers scored 515 out of India's total of 626 © AFP

Sourav Ganguly continued from where he had left off on the opening day, making his highest Test score, and his first double-century. His 239 is the seventh-highest by an Indian, and the highest by a left-hander for the country, going past Vinod Kambli's 227 against Zimbabwe in Delhi in 1992-93. Ganguly's century was also the 50th by an Indian batsman against Pakistan.

Ganguly's knock lifted his aggregate for 2007 to 932, which is next only to Jacques Kallis' 1125. (Click here for the list of highest run-getters for 2007.)

With Irfan Pathan getting a century as well - to add to the efforts of Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh - it was a rare instance of three left-handers scoring a century in an innings. This was only the third such occasion in Tests - Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist achieved it against New Zealand in Brisbane in 2001-02, while Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss and Graham Thorpe feasted on South Africa in Durban in 2004-05.

The four left-handers in the Indian team - Gautam Gambhir being the fourth - totalled 515 runs in the innings, which is only the fourth time left-handers managed an aggregate of more than 500 in an innings. The record for the two highest contributions by left-handers is held by West Indies, and on both occasions Brian Lara was the protagonist - he contributed 400 out of 612 against England in Antigua in 2003-04, and 375 out of 556 against the opposition in 1993-94. Matthew Hayden's 380 against Zimbabwe in Perth helped the lefties add 549.

The 178-run partnership between Ganguly and Pathan is the highest seventh-wicket stand for India against Pakistan, going past the 155 that Roger Binny and Madan Lal added at the same ground in 1983.

Pathan finally managed to get a three-figure score after having fallen in the nineties twice in Tests. He needs just 63 more to get to 1000 Test runs.

India's total of 626 comes in ninth on the list of highest scores by the team, and is their fifth-highest at home.

Yasir Arafat became only the eighth Pakistan bowler to take a five-for on debut, and while his performance was extremely encouraging for a team struggling with their bowling resources, a look at the careers of the other seven doesn't augur well for him. None of them have gone on establish themselves as regular threats with the ball: Mohammad Sami is the highest wicket-taker in the list, with 78, but he has laboured 33 matches for that haul. Shabbir Ahmed has been the most effective, with 51 wickets in ten Tests, but a suspect bowling action has severely limited his international career.

Best performance on debut by a Pakistan bowler
Bowler	Debut performance	Versus	Venue & year
Mohammad Nazir	30.1-3-99-7	New Zealand	Karachi, 1969-70
Mohammad Zahid	20-30-66-7	New Zealand	Rawalpindi, 1996-97
Arif Butt	21.3-1-89-6	Australia	Melbourne, 1964-65
Shahid Nazir	22.4-3-53-5	Zimbabwe	Sheikhupura, 1996-97
Sahid Afridi	23.3-6-52-5	Australia	Karachi, 1998-99
Mohammad Sami	15-4-36-5	New Zealand	Auckland, 2000-01
Shabbir Ahmed	18.1-2-48-5	Bangladesh	Karachi, 2003
Yasir Arafat	39-5-161-5	India	Bangalore, 2007-08

When he reached 29, Salman Butt became the 44th Pakistan batsman to get to 1000 Test runs.

Irfan Pathan Sourav Ganguly Pakistan India India vs Pakistan Pakistan tour of India

S Rajesh is stats editor at Cricinfo