India's rare fast-bowling feat and Ishant's best

Stats highlights from the first day of the 2nd Test between New Zealand and India, at the Basin Reserve, Wellington

14-Feb-2014

Ishant Sharma struck twice in the first session, New Zealand v India, 1st Test, Auckland, 1st day, February 6, 2014

Ishant Sharma made use of the helpful conditions at the Basin Reserve to take his second five-wicket haul of the tour and register his best bowling figures in Tests, dismissing six New Zealand batsmen for 51 runs. His previous best in Tests had come against West Indies in Bridgetown in 2011 when he took 6 for 55. Ishant has now taken 164 Test wickets at 36.56, including five five-wicket hauls.

Ishant has taken 15 wickets from three innings in this Test series, which equals the second-highest wickets taken by him in a series. His best was India's tour to West Indies in 2011 when he took 22 wickets at 16.86 in three Tests. He has taken 15 wickets in a series earlier also, against Australia in the home series in 2008-09.

Corey Anderson was Ishant's 100th wicket in away Tests. He is the eighth India bowler - and the fourth seamer - to do so.

Mohammed Shami ended up with four wickets in New Zealand's innings. This is the first instance in over 30 years that two India fast bowlers have taken all ten opposition wickets to fall in an innings. The last such occurrence was in 1983 in Ahmedabad, when Kapil Dev took nine wickets against West Indies in the second innings of the Test and Balwinder Sandhu took one. There are only two other such instances, against England in Mumbai in 1981, when Kapil and Madan Lal took five wickets each, and against Australia at the SCG in the same year, when Kapil and Karsan Ghavri took five wickets each in Australia's first innings. Including this innings, there are only 12 instances of India fast bowlers taking all ten wickets in an innings in Tests.

That India have lacked fast bowlers is apparent from the fact that Ishant's two five-fors in this series is only the second time since 2005 that an India fast bowler has taken two or more five-wicket hauls in a series. The other instance in this period was also by Ishant, against West Indies in 2011.

Zaheer Khan ended up wicket-less from the 17 overs he bowled today. The New Zealand batsmen looked most comfortable against him and were in control playing 88 of the 104 deliveries he bowled at them. Mohammad Shami, despite having an economy of 4.15 in the innings, was the bowler who troubled batsmen the most, getting them to play false-shots on 33% of the deliveries he bowled.

New Zealand batsmen's shot control factor v India bowlers
Bowler	Deliveries faced	in control	not in control	not in control %age
Zaheer Khan	104	88	16	15%
Ravindra Jadeja	12	10	2	17%
Ishant Sharma	105	79	26	25%
Mohammed Shami	102	68	34	33%

India's batsmen looked more comfortable than the New Zealand batsmen in negotiating the opposition's attack, as was evident from their control factors: India's batsmen were in control playing 88% of the deliveries that were bowled at them as compared with their counterparts who had a control factor of 77%.

New Zealand v India, batsmen shot control factor comparison
Bowler	Deliveries faced	in control	not in control	not in control %age
New Zealand	317	243	74	23%
India	168	144	24	14%

New Zealand's first-innings total of 192 is the lowest they have scored in the first innings of a Test at this venue since 1997, when England bundled them out for 124 runs. Between these two occasions, there have been eight instances of the hosts batting first at the Basin Reserve in a Test. This is also the lowest first-innings total at this venue since 2008, when Bangladesh were bowled out for 143 by the hosts.

Two New Zealand players, Jimmy Neesham and Tom Latham, made their debut today. While Neesham had a decent first day scoring a rapid 33 runs, Latham was dismissed for a duck. He is the 35th New Zealand debutant to be dismissed for a duck. He is also the third New Zealand No.4, and the first since John Reid in 1979, to be dismissed for a duck in his first Test innings.

Ishant Sharma India New Zealand New Zealand vs India India tour of New Zealand

Shiva Jayaraman is a sub-editor (stats) at ESPNcricinfo.com