Kumble and Sehwag on a roll

Kumble's first-innings heroics
There was a time when Anil Kumble's effectiveness was restricted to home Tests, and that too primarily in the second innings. That, however, was the Kumble of old. Kumble has often stated in the last few months that he is bowling better than ever before, and the stats prove the fact: he is now far more effective overseas - as was proved by his performances on tours to England, Australia and Pakistan - and, quite surprisingly for a spinner, he actually seems to relish bowling in the first innings more than he does in the second. The Kumble of old was a one-dimensional bowler, getting little turn and relying on his relentless accuracy and the vagaries of the pitch for his wickets. In his new avatar, he turns his legbreak and the googly, varies the pace of his deliveries and generally bowls much slower through the air. That may have resulted in a slight compromise on the economy rate - it has gone up from 2.46 before December 2003 to 3.23 in the last 12 months - but it has also made him a more complete bowler.

Of the 72 wickets he has taken in his last 11 Tests (since the Australian tour in 2003-04), 47 of them have come in the first innings. That by itself might not be surprising, since India haven't always bowled twice in these matches, but Kumble's average and strike-rate are better in the first innings too. He has taken eight five-fors during this period, and six of them have come in the first innings.

The trend started, as mentioned earlier, on the tour of Australia last year, when he returned figures of 5 for 154, 6 for 176 and 8 for 141 in three successive matches, and only 5 for 239 in the second innings of all those matches. Then, on Australia's recently concluded tour, he ripped through their line-up at Chennai, taking 7 for 48 on the first day. Most recently, he was at it again versus South Africa at Kanpur, taking for 6 for 131 in their first innings. Then, with Harbahjan Singh and Murali Kartik enjoying much more success in South Africa's second innings, Kumble struggled, bowling 21 wicketless overs.

Sehwag's perfect eight
From a recent first-innings hero to one of the all-time best first-innings performers: Virender Sehwag's 164 against South Africa at Kanpur was his eighth Test hundred, and - you guessed it - all of them have come in the first knock. In fact, Sehwag has 15 fifty-plus scores in Tests, and only two of them have been when batting a second time. Here's what his second-innings scores look like in the matches in which he hit a hundred - 31, 0, 1, 11, 12 not out. (He hasn't batted again on the other three occasions.) His first-innings average is next only to Don Bradman and Everton Weekes in the all-time list (among players with at least 1500 runs), but thanks to his abysmal record when batting again, the difference between Sehwag's firstand second-innings average is a whopping 46 runs - no other batsman with at least 2000 Test runs has such skewed figures.

For a batsman who scores so quickly and has such a penchant for big hundreds - his last four centuries have been 150-plus scores - his three-figures have, surprisingly, not helped India win as often as you'd expect: India won only two of those eight games (against West Indies, when Sehwag scored 147, and the famous Multan win against Pakistan, when Sehwag scored that massive 309.