Most runs by No. 4 batsmen, and the key partnerships

The overall stats

Five-thousand-eight-hundred-and-seventy runs were scored in the four-Test series between Australia and India, the most ever in a series of four or fewer matches in Test history. That, in a nutshell, captures the essence of the series, in which batsmen made merry and bowlers had to work extremely hard for their rewards. (The second-highest is also an Australia-India series - 5651, in 2003-04.) The runs were scored at 3.71 per over, with Australia achieving a rate of 4.12, their third-best in a series of four or more Tests. The Tests at Melbourne and Sydney were both drawn, the first time this happened in an Australian season since 1985-86 when, again, India were the tourists.

For a team that had been so woeful with the bat in England earlier last year, India didn't do badly, managing a series average of almost 38, and scoring seven centuries to Australia's eight. Their bowlers, though, picked up only 60 Australian wickets in four Tests, and bowled them out only twice. They conceded more than 500 in every first innings. India scored more than 400 in each of their first innings - which meant this was the first instance of both teams scoring more than 400 in each of their first innings in a series of three or more Tests - but the bowlers ensured they were always playing catch-up.

In almost every innings they batted in, Australia got off to a quick start, rattling off boundaries thanks largely to David Warner. Their scores at the end of ten overs read thus: 62, 60, 56, 51, 47, 42, 49, 32. India's highest after ten overs was 43, and three times they were restricted to less than 25 at that stage of the innings. The early runs Australia's top order was able to score against India's new-ball attack meant the new-ball pressure was almost non-existent at the start of Australia's innings.

A series for No. 4 batsmen

Virat Kohli scored 692 runs in eight innings at No. 4; Steven Smith made 555 in six, and Michael Clarke scored 135 in two: together they totaled 1382 runs, the most ever by No. 4 batsmen in a Test series of any length. The eight hundreds they scored at No. 4 was also the highest; the next-best is six.

With all three of them captaining their teams as well, it was an outstanding batting series for the captains despite MS Dhoni's lack of runs. The aggregate of 1207 is the third highest for captains in any series, while their average of 80.46 is also third in a series of four or more Tests. The seven hundreds they scored is the best for captains in any series.

Neither Smith nor Kohli will forget this series in a hurry. Smith's aggregate of 769 is the highest in a series between the two teams - he went past Don Bradman's 715 in 1947-48 - and sixth for Australia in any series. Kohli's 692 is fourth-highest in an Australia-India series, and third for India in any series. Only Sunil Gavaskar has scored more runs for India in a series.

Apart from Kohli and Smith, each team had a few other batting stars as well. For Australia, David Warner and Chris Rogers were the most prominent - both scored over 400 runs, and averaged more than 50. Warner made hundreds each of the three times he passed 50, while Rogers didn't score a single century despite going past 50 in six successive innings.

India's batting was held together by three batsmen. Apart from Kohli, Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane scored the bulk of the runs, with both averaging more than 55. Together, the three batsmen contributed 59 percent of the total runs scored off the bat by India in the entire series. KL Rahul scored an impressive hundred in Sydney, but Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma were the disappointments - among them, they scored 541 runs in 18 innings at an average of 30.

Amid all the runs scored in the series, there were two batting positions which neither team got right. At No. 3, Shane Watson and Pujara struggled to make an impact, getting starts but not converting them, while Rohit followed the same template in Sydney. Rohit batted at No. 6 in the first two Tests and did nothing of note, but the batsmen who replaced him at that slot did even worse: Rahul made 3 on debut, while Suresh Raina capped off a truly miserable series for that position with a pair in Sydney. For Australia Joe Burns and Mitchell Marsh batted at six, and while they didn't score huge runs, both suggested they could be long-term options for Australia.

Partnerships - top four, and the rest

The top four partnerships for both teams were outstanding, but while Australia had healthy contributions from the batsmen lower down the order as well, India got almost nothing from them. For India, the top four wickets contributed 68% of the total team runs; for Australia, the corresponding number was 57%. Both teams had the same number of century partnerships for the first four wickets, but Australia had five for the last six wickets compared to none for India.

The partnerships in the lower-middle order was a big difference between the two teams: Australia averaged twice as many as India, with four century stands compared to none by India. Smith combined with Mitchell Johnson, Brad Haddin and Clarke to string together important stands, but India struggled to make meaningful additions after being four down. Similarly, Australia's lower order was far more effective with the bat, though India had a couple of useful partnerships for the eighth wicket in Sydney.

Overall, India's average stand for the last six wickets was 21.19, which was among their poorest. It wasn't very different from the 1999-2000 tour to Australia, when the team was blanked 3-0: in that series, the average stand for the last six wickets was 20.41.

The bowlers who made the difference

In a series dominated by tall scores, the difference was the fact that Australia took 13 more wickets in the series than India. All the Australian specialist bowlers who played more than one Test averaged less than 37, with Josh Hazlewood taking 12 wickets at 29.33, Ryan Harris ten at 33.40, and Nathan Lyon 23 at 34.82. On the other hand, only one of India's specialist bowlers averaged less than 48: Mohammad Shami's 15 wickets came at 35.80.

India's fast bowlers leaked almost 50 runs per wicket, nearly 14 more than the average for Australia's quick bowlers, but in terms of strike rate there was little to choose between the two teams. That's because of the rate at which India's fast bowlers gave away runs: their economy rate of 4.30 was their worst ever in a series (excluding one-off Tests).

In terms of the overall series stats, Lyon finished with better numbers than Ashwin, but Lyon took 12 of his 23 wickets in Adelaide, in a Test Ashwin did not play. In the three Tests that both bowlers played, there was little to choose between their numbers.

Player v player stats

Kohli v Johnson was expected to be a key battle for the series, but Kohli handled that challenge pretty well, as he did most of the batting-related challenges in the series. In 157 balls, he scored 145 runs off Johnson, getting dismissed three times, for an average of 48 and a run rate of more than five-and-a-half per over. None of the Indian batsmen scored as freely off Harris, though, with Murali Vijay scoring at only 1.80 per over off him; Harris didn't dismiss him even once in 150 balls, though. Dhawan couldn't keep out Harris half as well, falling to him three times in 33 balls. Rohit got out to Australia's main fast bowlers only once in the series, but couldn't keep out the slower bowlers, falling twice to Watson and three times to Lyon.

Just as Kohli was dominant against almost all Australian bowlers, similarly Smith was prolific against each member of the Indian attack. Ashwin bowled 262 deliveries to him but didn't dismiss him once, while Shami got him out once in 145 balls. Yadav dismissed him three times, but Smith still averaged 47 against him. Warner was ruthless against India's two fastest bowlers, going at more than a run a ball against both Yadav and Aaron - against Yadav he scored 80 runs off 64 balls. The one Indian bowler who dismissed two top-order batsmen more than twice was Ashwin: Warner and Watson fell three times to him, and both averaged less than 15 against him.