India v Sri Lanka, 2017: 3rd Test, Day 1 – Statistical Highlights

Virat Kohli once again feasted with the records with an unbeaten 156 on the opening day of the Delhi Test match against the Lankans. Batting along with Murali Vijay, Kohli helped India to post 371/4 on the first day. Vijay (155) struck 2nd consecutive century on his comeback before getting out in final minutes of the day’s play. By virtue this century, Kohli not only broke records but also achieved a rare feat of scoring hundred at home venue as an Indian captain, achieved by only MAK Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar before him.

All the stats and records created during the run-feast day at the Feroz Shah Kotla:

3 – Number of centuries in consecutive innings for Virat Kohli in Test cricket. He is the first captain in Test history to score a hat-trick of hundreds on two different occasions. Kohli scored centuries in each of his first three innings as captain. No Indian captain has managed to score more than two Test tons in a row.

25 – Dilruwan Perera became the 6th Sri Lankan player to take 100 wickets in Test cricket. He is the quickest among the six players as he needed only 25 Tests. Muttiah Muralitharan needed 27 Tests for 100 wickets.

50 – Virat Kohli became the 3rd Indian to complete 3000 Test runs as captain after Sunil Gavaskar (3449) and MS Dhoni (3454). Gavaskar needed 58 innings to complete the milestone while Dhoni needed 82.

105 – Virat Kohli became the 11th Indian to complete 5000 runs in Test cricket. The 105 innings he needed for the milestone are the 4th fewest among these 11 players.

156* – Virat Kohli’s 156* is the highest score made by an Indian captain on the opening day of a Test match. He surpassed the 151* he made during the opening day of the Vishakhapatnam Test against England last year.

167 – Murali Vijay’s highest Test score of 167 is the lowest highest score for an opener in Test cricket. (Minimum: 10 centuries) Andrew Strauss had a highest of 169 among his 20 centuries as an opener in Test cricket. Vijay fell 12 runs short of his highest Test score in this game.

283 – Murali Vijay and Virat Kohli’s partnership stand of 283 runs for the 3rd wicket is their highest for any wicket in Test cricket against Sri Lanka. Their previous biggest stand against the Lankans was 272 between N Kapil Dev and Mohammad Azharuddin for the 6th wicket in 1986 in Kanpur. It is also the 3rd biggest stand in India-Sri Lanka Test matches and the highest for the 3rd wicket.

350 – Virat Kohli completed 16000 runs in International cricket in 350 innings. He broke the record of Hashim Amla (363 innings) to become the quickest to the 16000 runs milestone and also surpassed MS Dhoni’s tally in International cricket.

473 – Kohli’s 473 runs so far in this series are the 5th most by an Indian in a 3-match Test series. These are also the most by an Indian captain in a 3-match Test series going past Sachin Tendulkar’s 435 in the 1999 home series against New Zealand. He also became the first Indian and the 6th player overall to score centuries in each game of a 3-match Test series.

1987 – Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane getting out stumped is the first occasion for India since February 1987 where two of their top five batsmen got out in this fashion in a Test inning. Last such instance was in Chennai against Pakistan in 1987.

2681 – Runs Virat Kohli scored in International cricket in 2017 so far. These are the most runs by an Indian across formats in a calendar year as he went past Rahul Dravid’s 1999 tally of 2625 runs. Kohli’s 2681 runs are the 4th most International runs for a player and the 2nd most for a captain in a calendar year.