By IANS
Melbourne : India’s 337-run loss to Australia in the first Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) here Saturday was their third biggest defeat in Test cricket.
The biggest was a defeat by 342 runs against Australia at Nagpur in 2004-05. The second biggest was a defeat by 341 runs against Pakistan at Karachi in 2005-06.
Australia’s triumph by 337 runs is their seventh in 10 Tests against India at Melbourne. India now have lost 21 out of the 33 Test matches played in Australia. They have won four and drawn twice.
The other statistical highlights of the Test are:
# Ricky Ponting became the third Australian captain and the fourth overall to win 30 or more Tests as Captain. Steve Waugh (41) heads the table, followed by West Indian Clive Lloyd (36), Allan Border (32) and Ponting (30).
# Ponting’s winning percentage, 78.94, is the best amongst captains with 20 or more Tests – 30 wins out of 38 (lost 3 and drew 5).
# Ponting is now the only captain in Test annals to have recorded 15 wins in succession – between Dec 26, 2005 and Dec 29, 2007. Steve Waugh, with 12 straight wins (during Australia’s sequence of 16 consecutive wins) between Oct 14, 1999 and Dec 3, 2000, has the next best record.
# Winning 15 Tests in succession in Australia’s their second best winning sequence after their 16 triumphs in a row between Oct 14, 1999 and Mar 1, 2001
# Matthew Hayden got his 10th Man of the Match award for scoring 124 & 47 – his second against India. He had got his first MOM award in his Test career against India for posting 203 & 35 at Chennai in March 2001.
# Anil Kumble has lost his first Test as Captain – he has won 1, lost 1 and drawn 2 out of 4 as captain.
# After five years, India have been dismissed under 200 in both innings of a Test match – the last occasion before the Melbourne Test being the Hamilton Test against New Zealand in December 2002 – 99 & 154.
# Yuvraj Singh is without a fifty in his last nine innings away from home – 23 & 39 vs. West Indies at St. John’s in 2006; 2 at Gros Islet; 0 & 8 not out at Basseterre; 19 & 13 at Kingston and 0 & 5 vs. Australia at MCG in 2007-08.
# Rahul Dravid has aggregated 606 runs in 19 innings (10 Tests) at an average of 35.64, including one century and three fifties, in 2007 – the worst performance of his Test career. The calendar years 1996 & 2007 are the two years when he has failed to average even 40.00. In his debut year 1996, he had made 436 in 12 innings (7 Tests) at an average of 39.63, including three fifties.
# Both V.V.S. Laxman and Dravid completed their 1,500 runs against Australia during this Test. The top six batsmen with 1,500 runs or more in India-Australia Tests are:
Batsman For M I N.O.Runs H.S. Ave. 100 50 0
Sachin Tendulkar Ind.22 41 4 1936 241* 52.32 7 8 4
Allan Border Aus.20 35 5 1567 163 52.23 4 9 2
Sunil Gavaskar Ind.20 31 1 1550 172 51.66 8 4 2
Gundappa Viswanath Ind.18 31 2 1538 161* 53.03 4 9 1
V.V.S.Laxman Ind.17 31 1 1525 281 50.83 4 6 1
Rahul Dravid Ind.19 35 4 1501 233 48.41 2 8 2
# Sourav Ganguly’s aggregate of 1,106 (ave.61.44) in 10 Tests is the second best this year, next only to Jacques Kallis – 1,125 (ave.86.53) in 9 Tests (before his second innings against West Indies at Port Elizabeth).