AUS vs IND, 2020-21: 2nd Test, Day 3 – Indian captain runout yet again, Ashwin moves up the charts, Smith’s drought and more stats

India stands close to squaring the series against Australia as they had the home team six wickets down in the second essay after taking a 131-run lead. Much like their first innings at the Adelaide Oval, India collapsed after their skipper Ajinkya Rahane (112) got runout. They got bowled out for 326 after scoring only 32 runs for the final five wickets.

India turned the tables around in the final session where they took three wickets for one run to leave Australia struggling at 99/6. With a deficit of 32 runs still to be covered, an innings defeat look likely for the hosts. But Chris Green (17*) and Pat Cummins (15*) put on an unbeaten 34-run stand to hand a 2-run lead by stumps to the Australians.

Here are all the statistical highlights from yet another day dominated by India at the Melbourne cricket ground:

Yet another runout for Indian captain:

2 – India recorded only their 2nd instance of captains getting runout in successive Test matches. The other such instance came in 2004 when Rahul Dravid got runout in the 2nd Test on Pakistan tour and Sourav Ganguly in the 3rd Test.

Ganguly was also got runout against Australia in Bangalore Test making it three in a row for India. Dravid was at the crease when Ganguly got dismissed runout twice in two Tests.

111 – Ajinkya Rahane got runout for the first time in his Test career after having played 111 innings across 66 Test matches. This was the 3rd time where Rahane was part of a runout dismissal in Test cricket; all of them coming across four Tests he played in 2020.

Ashwin climbs up the charts:

374 – Ravichandran Ashwin, with 374 wickets, is now the 20th highest wicket-taker in Test cricket by going past Waqar Younis’ tally of 373 wickets. Only three active bowlers have claimed more wickets than Ashwin in Test cricket.

20012 – Ashwin now has bowled more than 20,000 balls in Test cricket thus far. The final ball of his 21st over in Australia’s 2nd innings was the 20000th ball he bowled in this format. Ashwin is only the 5th Indian and the 25th player in Test history to deliver 20000+ balls.

36 – Ravichandran Ashwin has bagged 36 wickets in Test cricket on Australian soil thus far which are the 3rd most by an Indian behind Kapil Dev (51) and Anil Kumble (49). Ashwin went past Bishen Singh Bedi’s tally of 35 wickets when he dismissed Marnus Labuschagne.

Rahane only behind Tendulkar:

112 – Ajinkya Rahane’s 112-run knock is now the highest by a visiting captain at the MCG since Sachin Tendulkar’s 116-run knock. The knocks of Sachin and Rahane occupy the top two spots for highest individual scores by visiting skippers in Boxing Day Tests at the MCG.

Smith’s drought continues:

4 – Steve Smith has failed to record a double digit score in any of the four innings he has batted in the ongoing series against India. This is only the 2nd instance of him recording single digit scores in four successive innings in Test cricket (3rd & 4th Tests in 2015 England tour).

18.25 – Steve Smith’s batting average of 18.25 in Test cricket in 2020 is his lowest in any calendar year. Smith’s previous lowest Test batting average in a calendar year was 23.37 during his debut year, 2010.

Siraj continues to impress on debut:

2 – Mohammed Siraj is only the 2nd Indian pacer to pick at least one wicket in both innings during debut Test played in Australia. Syed Abid Ali, during the 1967 Adelaide Test, was the first such pacer. Interestingly, Abid and Siraj are the only pace bowlers from Hyderabad to represent India in Test cricket.