Stats Analysis

Steyn's worst Test figures

Stats highlights of the fourth day's play between South Africa and India at the Wanderers

Shiva Jayaraman
21-Dec-2013
When MS Dhoni bowled on the fourth day, it was the first time that wicketkeepers from both sides had bowled in a Test  •  AFP

When MS Dhoni bowled on the fourth day, it was the first time that wicketkeepers from both sides had bowled in a Test  •  AFP

  • Cheteshwar Pujara's 153 was the first 150-plus score outside the subcontinent by an Indian batsman since Gautam Gambhir's 167 in Wellington in 2009. Pujara's innings was the 11th 150-plus score in the second innings by Indian batsmen outside the subcontinent. Four of Pujara's six Test tons have been scores of 150 or more.
  • The 222-run partnership for the third wicket between Pujara and Virat Kohli equalled India's highest in South Africa. Mohammad Azharuddin and Sachin Tendulkar had added 222, but for the sixth wicket, in Cape Town in 1997.
  • Dale Steyn bowled 56 overs in the match, conceded 165 runs and picked up only one wicket. Excluding Steyn's last Test against India, at the Wanderers in 2006, when he bowled only 10 overs before pulling out with a thigh strain, his bowling average in this match is his worst. India's second innings was also the first time in 27 innings that Steyn did not take a wicket, since the Basin Reserve Test in 2011-12.
  • Alviro Petersen's unbeaten 76 was his first 50-plus score in 11 innings, since his century against New Zealand in Cape Town in January. At present, Petersen has 345 runs at 31.36 from 12 innings this year, with just one century and one half-century.
  • The 108 runs put up by South Africa's openers in the second innings was their highest in the last 14 innings, and their first century stand in 12 innings this year. Including the first innings, South Africa's openers have added 145 runs for the first wicket in this Test - almost half the partnership runs they added from ten innings in 2013. This was also the opening pair's best effort by far in the fourth innings of a Test. In six innings when South Africa have batted last in a match before this Test, their openers had scored only 97 runs at 19.40, with just one fifty partnership.
  • The century partnership between Petersen and Smith was South Africa's fifth in the fourth innings against India, and the first since New Zealand's Matt Horne and Gary Stead added 131 in Ahmedabad in 1999.
  • AB de Villiers had bowled one over on the third day and, on the fourth, fading light forced India captain MS Dhoni to have a bowl himself, making this the first time that two opposition keepers have bowled in a Test. There is only one other instance of wicketkeepers bowling in two innings of a Test, when Dhoni bowled in both the innings of the Lord's Test in 2011. Dhoni's stint with the ball was the 36th instance of a player bowling in the same innings in which he has kept wickets.
  • Shiva Jayaraman is a sub-editor (stats) at ESPNcricinfo.com