Tit-bits after the fourth day’s play of the third and final Test between India and New Zealand on Monday.

• Rahul Dravid, with Tim McIntosh’s catch, has established a world record for most catches (182) as a fielder, overtaking Mark Waugh’s tally of 181 catches. With Jesse Ryder’s catch, his tally is now 183.
• India (434/7 decl.) registered their highest total at Basin Reserve, Wellington, eclipsing the 379 in the first innings of the Test.
• India became the second team to register a second innings total of 400 against New Zealand at Basin Reserve, Wellington. Australia had made 511 for six declared followed by 460 for eight in 1973-74.
• Dhoni (52 & 56 not out), for the third time in his Test career, has recorded a fifty in each innings of a Test match – 92 & 68 not out against Australia at Mohali; 56 & 55 against Australia at Nagpur last year. Dhoni, with three instances of recording the feats as captain, has equalled an Indian record held by Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi. Pataudi had accomplished the feat against Australia twice – 86 & 53 at Mumbai in 1964-65; 75 & 85 at Melbourne in 1967-68 and once against England – 64 & 148 at Leeds in 1967.
• Sunil Gavaskar had achieved the feat twice while Vijay Hazare, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly once each.
• Gavaskar is the only Indian captain to have registered a century in each innings of a Test match – 107 & 182 not out against West Indies at Kolkata in 1978-79.
• Dhoni is the only Indian captain to have recorded a fifty in each innings of a Test match against New Zealand.
• Dhoni is now the second wicketkeeper to have effected 6 dismissals in an innings apart from a fifty in each innings of a Test match. Denis Lindsay had accomplished the feat for South Africa against Australia at Johannesburg in December 1966 – 69 & 182 and 6 ct. + 2 ct.
• Dhoni is one of only three captains/wicketkeeprs to post a double 50 – the others being Andy Flower and Tatenda Taibu (twice).
• Dhoni’s 56 not out is his highest score against New Zealand.
• Dhoni has 16 fifties in Tests – two against New Zealand.
• Dhoni has aggregated 540 in seven Tests as captain at an average of 60.00, including seven fifties.
• Zaheer Khan’s match figures of 7 for 115 are his best against New Zealand, surpassing the 6 for 85 in the 2002-03 Hamilton Test.
• Zaheer’s best ever figures in a Test match are 9 for 134 against England at Nottingham in July 2007.
• Jesse Ryder registered his first duck in Tests. Despite his second ball duck, he is still averaging 55 in Test cricket – 771 in nine Tests at an average of 55.07, including two centuries and four fifties.
• Ryder (3 & 0), for the first time in a Test match, has recorded single-digit scores.
• The top five run-getters in the 2008-09 series are: Gautam Gambhir (445), Sachin Tendulkar (344), Jesse Ryder(327), Rahul Dravid (314) and VVS Laxman (295).
• Chris Martin (7/168) registered his best match figures against India. Martin, with 14 wickets at an average of 21.35 is the leading New Zealand wicket-taker in the 2008-09 series.
• Ross Taylor has recorded his first fifty against India – the fifth overall. In the second Test at Napier, he had registered 151 off 204 balls.
• McIntosh has averaged just 12.00 in the 2008-09 series against India – 60 in five innings.
• Martin Guptill has averaged 27.20 in the 2008-09 series against India – 136 in five innings.
• New Zealand were set a target of 617 to win the Test – the 15th time a target of 600 or more was set in the fourth innings of a Test match – the previous highest target faced by India’s opponent was 516 – by Australia at Mohali in 2008-09.

Tags: Chris Martin, Dhoni, Gautam Gambir, Harbhajan Singh, India Vs New Zealand, Laxman, M.S.Dhoni, Mark Waugh, New Zealand, Rahul Dravid, Ross Taylor, Ryder, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Sunil Gavaskar, Tim McIntosh, Wellington, Zaheer Khan

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Just two days after they were expected to sail through the series, the Indian team has hit rough waters. Criticisms over defensive captaincy, poor approach in the field, and lackadaisical attitude in preparations – they arrived in Napier half a day before the Test started – have already started pouring in, and expect it to grow louder if the team fails to save the game.

79/3 in reply to 619 for 9 doesn’t look good, but the Indian batsmen will do well to remember that New Zealand, too, were 23 for 3 at one stage, and one partnership changed the whole script of the game. These are cruel conditions for bowlers, or so say the Indians. The surface is as flat as a road, the outfield is fast, the square boundaries are short, and Jesse Ryder is in imperious form. Like Virender Sehwag said yesterday, there aren’t many ways to stop a batsman once a partnership gets going, as the Indians found out when Ryder and Ross Taylor got into their strides.

The two top-order wickets that India lost today were the results of tired shots, from men who had spent 155 overs in the field. However, it could be a tough task for New Zealand tomorrow if a couple of batsmen get stuck in and build a partnership. Zaheer Khan, who bowled 34 overs for three wickets, didn’t have words that will encourage the New Zealand fast bowers. “We’ve given it everything we’ve got, as a bowling unit we’ve tried everything,” Zaheer said. “Lot of runs have been scored in boundaries, and it is difficult to stop boundaries. It’s frustrating for the fast bowlers.”

Zaheer did give it his all with the new ball, often beating the bat and missing the outside edge narrowly. Ishant Sharma kept running in hard through the day. Munaf Patel looked uninspired, but his looks don’t count for much. Harbhajan Singh lacked in variations, but not in effort. The bowlers’ intensity flagged only after lunch, when the ball lost its shine, and it seemed India had resigned themselves to their fate and were waiting for the declaration.

The bowlers perhaps deserve the benefit of doubt, but where the Indians let themselves down badly was in the field. On such a beautiful batting pitch where wicket-taking opportunities were always likely to be rare, it was imperative that India took every chance that came their way. Instead, India’s slips fielding was well below par.

An injured finger kept Sachin Tendulkar away from the slip cordon, but Yuvraj Singh, who took his place, could have made it 31 for 4 with a sharp chance, and later he dropped James Franklin when India were sensing a comeback late on the first day. Rahul Dravid missed a tough one – he would back himself to take about 50% of such catches – just before Ross Taylor had reached his century, and Taylor punished India for that reprieve.

This Indian team has taken giant strides over the last year and a half, but there is one criticism they haven’t completely wiped off. When the pitch is flat, when the batsmen are hard to dislodge, they seem to switch off, and lack the discipline to make run-scoring difficult for the batsmen.

Tags: India, Napier Test, New Zealand, Ryder, Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag, Zaheer

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