A bounty for Indian spinners

Stats highlights from a riveting final day in Mumbai

26-Nov-2011

R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha have a chat, India v West Indies, 3rd Test, Mumbai, 5th day, November 26, 2011

For only the second time in Test cricket, a match was drawn with the scores being level. The only previous instance was in Bulawayo in a Test between Zimbabwe and England almost 15 years ago. England, chasing 205 for victory, finished the game on 204 for 6. This, however, is the first instance of a drawn Test with a team nine down and a run away from victory. Click here for the closest draws by runs remaining, and here for the closest draws by wickets remaining.

India thus finished a run away from only their third whitewash in a series of three or more Tests. Their two previous ones were also at home: against England (1992-93) and Sri Lanka (1993-94). West Indies, on the other hand, finished a run away from losing a Test after making the highest first-innings total. The existing record for the highest first-innings total in a Test defeat is 586, while West Indies had scored 590 in their first innings at the Wankhede.

Any result other than a draw seemed far-fetched at the beginning of the final day, before West Indies' stunning collapse. They were bundled out for 134, which is 456 fewer than their first-innings total of 590. In the history of Test cricket, there have only been three instances of a greater difference between the first- and second-innings totals of a team. This is West Indies' highest difference - their previous record was 431, in a Test against New Zealand in Barbados in 1972, when they scored 133 in the first innings and then recovered with 564 in the second.

India's spinners accounted for 42 wickets in the three Tests. Only five times have their spinners taken more wickets in a series of three or fewer Tests, and the last of those five instances was in 1993-94, when Sri Lanka were at the receiving end of a 3-0 whitewash. Among those five instances was also England's visit in 1992-93, when they too were given a 3-0 drubbing.

R Ashwin scored 121 runs at 40.33, and took 22 wickets at 22.90 - only the 15th instance of a player scoring more than 100 runs in a series at a 40-plus average, and taking more than 20 wickets at an average of less than 23.

Pragyan Ojha's 6 for 47 is his best bowling figures in a Test innings, bettering his haul of 6 for 72 in the first Test in Delhi. In 14 Tests, Ojha has 62 wickets at an average 34.62.

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