Dhawan's record-breaking entry
Stats highlights from the third day's play in Mohali, which ended with India firmly in control
Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan
16-Mar-2013
The 283-run opening stand between Shikhar Dhawan and M Vijay is the highest ever in India-Auatralia Tests • BCCI
Shikhar Dhawan's blitz helped India play themselves into a position from which they have a chance to dictate the game. Here are the numbers from a day when 418 runs were scored in under 96 overs.
- Dhawan's century is the fastest ever by a batsman on Test debut. Dhawan, who took 85 balls for his century surpassed Dwayne Smith, who had scored a 93-ball century against South Africa in 2003. Dhawan's strike rate (at the end of the third day) is the highest ever for a century score by a batsman on debut (completed innings only). Dhawan also surpassed Gundappa Viswanath's record for the highest individual score by an Indian batsman on Test debut. Viswanath had scored 137 against Australia in Kanpur in 1969. Dhawan needs 103 runs to go past Tip Foster's record for the highest score (287) by a batsman on debut. During the course of his knock, Dhawan also went past Gautam Gambhir's 179, which was the highest individual score in Tests in Mohali.
- Dhawan scored 144 of his 185 runs in boundaries (78%). He scored 122 runs on the off side including 22 fours and two sixes. On the leg side, he scored 63 runs with 11 fours. He scored at slightly under a run a ball (56 off 58 balls) off Mitchell Starc and Peter Siddle. However, Dhawan scored 66 off 42 balls bowled by Xavier Doherty and Steven Smith. Off Nathan Lyon, Dhawan scored 30 runs in 36 balls.
- The 283-run opening stand between Dhawan and M Vijay is the highest ever in India-Auatralia Tests, surpassing the previous best of 217 between David Boon and Geoff Marsh. It is also the third-highest opening partnership for India. If the partnership touches 300, Vijay will become only the fourth Indian batsman after Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman to be involved in three separate 300-plus partnerships. The Dhawan-Vijay partnership is also 32 runs short of surpassing the highest ever partnership (314) in Tests in Mohali, held by Dravid and Gautam Gambhir.
- The 283-run stand is the second 250-plus partnership in the series for the India after the 370-run partnership between Cheteshwar Pujara and Vijay in Hyderabad. This is only the second time that India have managed two 250-plus stands in a series against Australia. The previous series was in 2003 in Australia when Dravid and Laxman added 303 in Adelaide, and Tendulkar and Laxman combined to add 353 in Sydney.
- The partnership run-rate (4.87) is the fifth-highest for a 200-plus partnership for India and the highest for a 200-plus stand not involving Virender Sehwag. The run-rate is also the second-highest for a 200-plus stand in India-Australia Tests behind the 214-run opening stand between David Warner and Ed Cowan in Perth (5.51) in 2012.
- Starc became the fifth Australian batsman to be dismissed for 99 against India. He is also the only No. 9 batsman to be dismissed one short of a century. For the second time in Tests against India, two Australian batsmen were dismissed in the nineties. The previous time this happened was in the Nagpur Test in 2004, when Damien Martyn and Simon Katich were dismissed for 97 and 99 respectively. It is also only the ninth occasion (fourth for Australia) that three or more batsmen have been dismissed in a single innings for scores between 85 and 99.
- Australia's last three wickets added 157 runs after the seventh wicket fell at 251. It is the second-highest aggregate for the last three wickets for Australia in a Test against India after the 193 runs they managed in the Kolkata Test in 2001.
- MS Dhoni ended with five or more dismissals in an innings for the tenth time in international cricket (all formats included). In matches played since 2000, only Adam Gilchrist and Mark Boucher have had five or more dismissals in an innings more often than Dhoni (20 and 18 innings respectively).
Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan is a sub-editor (stats) at ESPNcricinfo