India vs South Africa, 2019: 3rd Test, Day 2 – Rohit’s maiden double ton, Umesh's blitz, another declaration and more stats

India move towards yet another Test win as they reduced South Africa to 9/2 after declaring their first innings at 497/9. Rohit Sharma scored his maiden Test double century while Ajinkya Rahane got his first home Test ton in three years. The pair shared 267 runs for the 4th wicket before the lower order added quick runs. Indian pacers picked up a wicket each in their respective first overs after India declared their innings at the Tea interval. Bad light came to the Proteas’ rescue only after five overs of their innings.

All the statistical highlights from yet another day which India dominated in this series:

A first by an Indian:

1 – Rohit Sharma became the first Indian to complete a Test double century by hitting a six. Overall, he is the 14th player to complete at least one Test 200 with a six. Among the 14 players, only Sanath Jayasuriya and Rohit completed a century and double century with a six in the same innings.

Stats: Instances of players completing double centuries with a six in Tests

A series to remember for Indian batters:

3 – Number of Indians who scored a double century in this series; the first three different batsmen scored double tons in a Test series for India. Overall, this is the 2nd series India had three individual 200s in a Test series. The first instance was during the 1955/56 home series against New Zealand.

47 – As many as 47 sixes have been hit by the Indian players in this series; the most number of sixes in a Test series for a team. They broke the record held by Australia with 40 sixes during the 2013/14 home Ashes series.

Rohit joins a rare list:

4 – Rohit Sharma became only the 4th player to score double centuries in both Test and ODI formats. He has scored three 200s in ODIs before his maiden Test double. Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Chris Gayle are the other three players with this feat.

List of records Rohit Sharma created with his maiden double century in Test cricket

The record partnership:

267 – The 267-run stand between Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane is India’s highest for 4th wicket after losing their first three wickets fell inside 100 runs on the board. India lost their 3rd wicket at the score of only 39 runs. In fact, Rohit-Rahane’s partnership is also the highest in India-South Africa Test matches for the 4th wicket.

Umesh’s blitz:

310 – Umesh Yadav’s strike rate of 310 during his 10-ball 31 is the highest in any Test innings of 10 or more balls. He is also the first player with 300+ SR in a Test inning. (Min: 10 balls)

5 – Umesh became the first player to hit five sixes in a Test innings without hitting a four. Yadav struck sixes off the first two balls he faced in this innings; the 3rd such instance in the history of Test cricket.

Stats: Umesh Yadav produces quickest innings with the bat in the history of Test cricket

Yet another declared innings:

5 – For the first time in their Test history, India has declared five consecutive innings. This is also the first time India were not bowled out in five consecutive Test innings. India declared each of the four innings in the ongoing series and also declared their last innings on the Caribbean tour.

5 – Only the 2nd time South Africa failed to bowl out their opponents in five successive Test innings. The other such instance was back in 1950-1951 across home Test series against Australia and away series in England.

Declaring at a low score:

1995 – The last instance of India declaring their first innings while batting first in a home Test without crossing 500 was back in 1995. India declared on 296/8 in the 1995 Cuttack Test against New Zealand as the 2nd and 3rd days were washed out.