By IANS
Chennai : South Africa registered their highest innings total against India in India on the second day of the first Test match here Thursday.
South Africa posted a mammoth 540 all out in their first innings Thursday, thereby surpassing 510 for nine declared in the 2004-05 Kanpur Test.
The following are the other statistical highlights of the day:
# Hashim Amla (159 off 262 balls) registered his first hundred on foreign soil. His first century against India is his fourth in Tests. His previous three hundreds were all recorded against New Zealand – an unbeaten 176 at Johannesburg and 103 at Centurion in 2007-08 and 149 at Cape Town in 2005-06.
# Amla has registered all his four hundreds at the No.3 position.
# Amla’s knock of 159 is the highest by a South African No.3 batsman against India.
# Amla’s innings is now the second best by a South African in India, next only to Andrew Hall’s 163 at Kanpur in 2004-05.
# Abraham de Villiers (44) is without a fifty against India in 4 Tests (7 innings), aggregating 146 runs at an average of 20.85.
# Mark Boucher’s innings of 70 off 146 balls is the highest individual knock by a South African wicketkeeper against India, obliterating his innings of an unbeaten 68 off 70 balls in the 2001-02 Port Elizabeth Test.
# Boucher’s first fifty in India is his fourth against India – his 28th overall in Tests.
# Morkel (35) posted his career-best score, bettering his 31 not out against India at Durban in December 2006.
# South Africa’s 540 is their second best score against India, next only to their 563 in the 2001-02 Bloemfontein Test.
# Harbhajan recorded his second instance of five wickets in an innings against South Africa – his 21st five-wicket haul overall.
# Harbhajan has now captured five wickets in an innings thrice at Chidambaram Stadium – his previous instances being 8 for 84, and 7 for 133 against Australia in 2000-01.
# Sehwag’s unbeaten 52 off 61 balls is his 14th fifty in Test cricket – his second against South Africa.
# Sehwag has now registered three 50-plus innings in a row – 63 & 151 against Australia at Adelaide in January 2008 and an unbeaten 52 off 61 balls against South Africa at Chepauk on March 27, 2008.