West Indies v India 2nd Test, Day 1 – Statistical Highlights

On a juicy track at Sabina Park, spinners had a marginally better day than pacers as 7 out of 11 wickets that fell on the day went to spinners on both sides. After electing to bat first, West Indies were reduced to 7/3 by Indian pacers. But a counter attack from Blackwood helped West Indies survive from early trouble.

However, Ravi Ashwin continued his form with the ball and picked up yet another 5-wicket haul in the series as West Indies were bowled out for 196. India finished the day at 126/1 with Rahul scoring an unbeaten 75. Here we look at all the stats recorded during 1st day’s play.

5 – Ravi Ashwin taking five wickets is only the fifth instance of an Indian spinner taking 5 wickets on the first day of a Test match outside Asia. Other 4 instances were BS Chandrasekhar at Trinidad & Auckland in 1976, BS Bedi at Brisbane in 1977 and Anil Kumble in 2007 at Melbourne. At Trinidad, Chandrasekhar actually picked 6 wickets on Day 1.

6 – Number of times Ashwin has dismissed Marlon Samuels in Test cricket, joint 2nd most times he has dismissed a player in this format. He dismissed Ed Cowan on 7 occasions while David Warner on 6 occasions.

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7 – Score at which West Indies lost their 3rd wicket. This is the 2nd time West Indies lost their 3rd wicket for 7 or less runs in an innings against India. Last time they lost 3 wickets under 10 runs was in 2012 vs Australia at Bridgetown where they were reduced to 4/3.

29.34 – Percentage of West Indies’ first innings runs that came from sixes off the bat. This is the highest percentage where 150+ runs have been scored in a Test inning with the bat. Previous highest was 28.57 by West Indies also against India at Kingston in 1983.

34 – Matches taken by Ravi Ashwin for his 18th 5-wicket haul in Tests. These are the 3rd fewest matches required for a player to pick up 18 five-wicket hauls. Sydney Barnes took 24 games while Waqar Younis took 31 games.

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47 – Balls taken by Jermaine Blackwood for his fifty. This is the 2nd fastest fifty by a West Indies player against India in Test cricket. Viv Richards’ 32-ball fifty at Kingston in 1983 is the fastest for a WI player vs India.

75* – KL Rahul’s unbeaten 75 is now the 3rd highest score for an Indian opener in his first Test innings in West Indies.

83.87 – Percentage of Jermaine Blackwood’s runs came in boundaries. These are the 3rd highest boundary % for a West Indian player in a 50+ score against India in Test cricket. Marlon Samuels had 88% during the first Test in this series while he had 86.15% of runs during his fifty at Kolkata in 2013. Overall, Blackwood’s percentage is the 9th highest against India in this format. (From the games of which boundaries data is available)

87 – KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan’s 87-run stand for the first wicket is the sixth highest opening stand for India in West Indies in Tests and first fifty-plus opening stand in Tests in WI after 9 innings.

196 – West Indies’ total of 196 runs in the first innings is the lowest total to have 9 or more sixes in it. West Indies had hit 9+ sixes during their 246/2 dec innings against England in 1986.

1995 – Last time West Indies had a fifty plus stand for 4th wicket after losing first 3 wickets inside 10 runs in a Test innings was in 1995 at Bridgetown against Australia.

2014 – Last time a spinner before Ashwin picked up 5 wickets on the first day of a Test match outside Asia was Sulieman Benn against New Zealand at Bridgetown in June 2014.