In front with ten wickets in hand

A double-century stand, a double-century deficit, and a maiden five-for... stats highlights from the second day in Perth

S Rajesh

14-Jan-2012

Fourteen wickets fell for 308 runs on the second day in Perth, but Australia still managed their first double-century opening stand in three-and-a-half years. Stats highlights from an action-packed second day:

The 214-run stand between David Warner and Ed Cowan was Australia's first 200-plus stand for the first wicket since Phil Jacques and Simon Katich added 223 against West Indies in Barbados in June 2008. Between 2001 and 2005 Australia had seven such stands, six of them by Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer. In all, Australia have had 21 such stands. The last time a right-hander was involved in one was in in 1999, when Greg Blewett and Michael Slater added 269 against Pakistan at the Gabba.

When Australia's first wicket fell, at 214, they already led India by 53. Only ten times in Test cricket has a team had a bigger lead over the opposition's first-innings score at the fall of their first wicket. The highest is 163, in a Test between South Africa and Zimbabwe in Cape Town in 2005, when Zimbabwe were bowled out for 54 and South Africa lost their first wicket at 217. Three of those ten instances have involved Zimbabwe or Bangladesh. This is also India's worst such instance: their previous poorest was in 1967 also against Australia, when they were bowled out for 173 and Australia lost their first at 191.

Warner scored his 180 off 159 balls, which is the seventh-fastest 150-plus score in Tests. Four of the nine fastest such scores have come against India.

On the 15 previous occasions when teams have taken a 200-plus lead in a Perth Test, only once have they not won the match. That happened way back in 1989, when Mark Greatbatch saved New Zealand with a 655-minute innings, after they'd fallen behind by 291 in the first innings. Click here for the instances when the team batting second has taken the lead, and here for the team batting first.

Umesh Yadav's 5 for 93 is his first five-wicket haul in Tests, and the second-best figures by an Indian in a Perth Test, next only to Bishan Bedi's 5 for 89 in 1977.

In his last 14 Test innings outside the subcontinent, VVS Laxman has scored 284 runs at 20.28, with a highest of 66. In 16 previous innings outside the subcontinent, Laxman had scored 704 runs at 54.15, with one century and six fifties.

Meanwhile, Virender Sehwag averages 21.09 in his last 21 innings outside the subcontinent, since India's last tour to Australia in 2007-08. Till that point, he'd averaged 42.62 in 40 innings outside the subcontinent.

David Warner Virender Sehwag VVS Laxman Ed Cowan India Australia Australia vs India India tour of Australia

S Rajesh is stats editor of ESPNcricinfo. Follow him on Twitter