With India and Australia about to resume their Test battles in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023, here are some gems from INDvAUS history we guarantee you won’t find elsewhere
In the 111th over of the Chennai Test of February 2013 against Australia, India’s captain MS Dhoni was 111 not out and Harbhajan Singh 11 not out.
Two bowlers made their Test debuts in the January 1992 Sydney Test. Shane Warne was hit all over the SCG by Ravi Shastri and Sachin Tendulkar as he took 1 for 150. He retired 15 years later after capturing the then world record 708 wickets in 145 Tests. India’s medium-pacer Subroto Banerjee took 3 for 47 in the above Sydney Test, his victims being Mark Taylor, Geoff Marsh and Mark Waugh. Surprisingly, this remained his only Test appearance. The cricket world worships Warne’s spin magic but it is “Subroto who?”
Shane Warne, Source: IANS
Nervous nineties? Against India in the October 2004 Nagpur Test, three Australians were dismissed in their nineties: Michael Clarke for 91, Simon Katich for 99 and Damien Martyn for 97. Martyn had scored centuries in his previous two Test innings: 114 in the first innings of this Test and 104 in the second innings of the previous Test in Chennai. He thus missed by three runs recording hundreds in three successive innings, a feat last achieved for Australia by Don Bradman, 132 and 127 not out in Melbourne and 201 in Adelaide against India in January 1948. Against other countries, Adam Gilchrist is the last Australian to hit centuries in three successive Test innings: 113 against Pakistan in Sydney in January 2005, 121 against NZ in Christchurch in March 2005 and 162 also against NZ at Wellington a week later.
Michael Clarke, Source: Cricket Australia
Before October 2010, Simon Katich and Michael Hussey had scored the same number of runs in the same number of Tests; 3981 runs in 52 Tests. Both had started their careers as opponents in Under-13 matches in Perth.
In the January 2012 Sydney Test against India, Australia’s Ricky Ponting (134 runs), skipper Michael Clarke (329 not out) and Michael Hussey (150 not out) added 622 runs for the loss of one wicket; Ponting and Clarke adding 288 for the fourth wicket and Clarke and Hussey 334 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket. The Aussie trio came within two runs of the record held by Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara (287) and Mahela Jayawardene (374) who had added 624 runs for the third wicket against South Africa in the 2006 Colombo Test. Never before had a Test innings included two successive stands of over 250 in Test history.
Combining consecutive Sydney and Perth Test innings in January 2012, Australia lost only one wicket before Ed Cowan was bowled in Perth while the team aggregated 836 runs (from 3 for 37 to 4 for 659 in Sydney to 0 for 214 in Perth). Also, after Ponting was dismissed in Sydney at 325 before Cowan was bowled in Perth, Australia did not lose a wicket for 548 runs.
Michael Clarke became the third batsman after Don Bradman (Australia v England in 1930 and 1934) and Wally Hammond (England v NZ 1932-33) to hit a triple and a double century in the same Test series. NZ’s Brendon McCullum joined them in the series against India in 2013-14.
In the March 2013 Hyderabad Test, India’s Murali Vijay (167) and Cheteshwar Pujara (204) totalled 371 runs. This was three runs more than 11 Australian batsmen batting twice, and sundries, for a combined total of 368 runs (9 wickets for 237 and 131 all out).
Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara, Source: Ron Gaunt/BCCI/SPORTZPICS
Australia was 9 for 399 when number 9 batsman Mitchell Starc was dismissed for 99 in the March 2013 Mohali Test.
A week later in the final Test in Delhi, Australia’s Peter Siddle became the first number 9 batsman in Test history to score 50 in both innings. He was also the first number 9 bat to top-score in both innings.
Allan Border scored centuries in two Chennai Tests; 162 run out in 1979 and 106 in 1986. In both these innings he was dropped on 0.
India’s medium-pacer Ajit Agarkar played six innings in the 1999-2000 series against Australia in Australia and scored five ducks in a row, four of them ‘golden’ (out first ball) and one ‘silver’ (out second ball). A year later he scored an unbeaten century against England in the Lord’s Test.
Audacious Adam Gilchrist had an incredible series in 2001. He followed his match-winning 122 in Mumbai with 0 and 0 in Kolkata (the Test Australia lost despite leading by 274 in the first innings) and 1 and 1 in Chennai. His last four Test innings (0011) resembled an overseas phone prefix!
Adam Gilchrist, Source: Facebook / Adam Gilchrist
On the third day of the third Test in the ‘3’ sponsored Test series in Melbourne on 28 December 2003, Australia was at one stage 3 for 333 trailing India by 33 runs.
India’s left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja took 3 for 33 and 3 for 33 in the next Test in Hyderabad in March 2013 to finish with match figures of 6 for 66.
Kersi is a virologist by profession and a cricket writer and cricket statistician by hobby. He is an author of 17 cricket books and over 17,000 cricket and scientific articles.
