Yuvraj and Ganguly turn it on

Stats highlights from the first day of the Bangalore Test

08-Dec-2007

Stats highlights from the first day of the Bangalore Test.

India finished the day with 365 on the board, which is their second-highest score on the first day of a Test. In 2001-02, they'd scored 372 for 7 on the opening day in Bloemfontein. Today's effort has also pushed their performance in Kolkata a week back - when they totalled 352 on the opening day - into fifth place.

The day was almost completely dominated by Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly, who put together 300 in just 65.2 overs - a run-rate of 4.59. It's easily a fifth-wicket record for India against Pakistan - going past the 200 that Sandeep Patil and Ravi Shastri added in Faisalabad in 1984-85. In fact, the stand is among the highest for India against Pakistan, and only the ninth time that an Indian pair has scored 300 or more in a Test.

Highest partnerships for India versus Pakistan
Pair	Runs	For wkt	Venue & year
Dravid-Sehwag	410	First	Lahore, 2005-06
Sehwag-Tendulkar	336	Third	Multan, 2003-04
Ganguly-Yuvraj	300	Fifth	Bangalore, 2007-08

Only twice has an Indian pair added more runs for the fifth wicket, and on both occasions Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were the protagonists, and Australia at the receiving end: in Kolkata in 2001 they added 376, while in Adelaide a couple of years later they put on 303.

The stand is the second-highest in a Test in Bangalore, next only to the 324 that Inzamam-ul-Haq and Younis Khan added when the two teams last played here, in 2004-05. It's also the first time an Indian pair has put together a 200-plus partnership in a Test in Bangalore.

Highest partnerships in Bangalore
Pair	Runs	For wkt	Against	Year
Inzamam-Younis	324	Third	India	2004-05
Ganguly-Yuvraj	300	Fifth	Pakistan	2007-08
Greenidge-Lloyd	207	Fourth	India	1974-75

Only once has a fifth-wicket pair made Pakistan suffer more than this, when Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting enjoyed a 327-run stand a Perth in 1999-2000.

Highest fifth-wicket partnerships versus Pakistan
Pair	Runs	Venue & year
Langer-Ponting	327	Perth, 1999-2000
Ganguly-Yuvraj	300	Bangalore, 2007-08
Andy Flower-Goodwin	277*	Bulawayo, 1997-98

On 46 occasions an Indian pair has been involved in a partnership of 200 or more, but Ganguly and Yuvraj have become the first left-handed pair to achieve it. They have added 581 runs from five innings, at an average of 116.20.

Yuvraj's Test aggregate against Pakistan has gone up to 570 from eight innings, at an average of 71.25. His strike innings in this innings, of 83.25, lifts his overall strike rate against Pakistan to 73.54. This was also Yuvraj's first century at home - his two previous efforts had both come in Pakistan.

Ganguly's unbeaten 125 is his second century in 19 innings against Pakistan - in 18 previous innings he averaged only 33.64. It's also the fourth time Ganguly has scored hundreds in consecutive Tests - he did so in his first two Tests, then against Sri Lanka in 1997-98, and more recently against New Zealand (in Ahmedabad) and Australia (in Brisbane) in 2003-04.

In this one innings, Ganguly has scored more than he managed in his nine previous innings at the ground, which had fetched him a total of just 100 runs.

Yuvraj Singh Sourav Ganguly India India vs Pakistan Pakistan tour of India

S Rajesh is stats editor at Cricinfo