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Record-breaking stats from Delhi Test

Dot balls, bulk wickets and an imperious home record highlight India's marathon win over South Africa

91.96 – The percentage of dot balls in the South Africa innings, the highest for any team this millennium with minimum 600 balls faced (i.e 100 overs). The Proteas batted 859 balls (143.1 overs) in the fourth innings of the Delhi Test against India and 790 of them were dots. Interestingly, in the list of highest percentage of dot balls by a team in a Test innings since 2000, South Africa features in the top five as many times. On all the five occasions their batsmen needed to play an anchor role to save the Test. While they did it successfully in Colombo (SSC), Georgetown and Adelaide, their efforts went in vain at New Delhi and Cape Town.

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0.99 – South Africa’s run rate in the fourth innings at Feroz Shah Kotla, the lowest by any team innings in the history of Test cricket with at least 100 overs. South Africa scored just 143 runs in 143.1 overs. The previous record was 1.00 by India (187 runs in 185.3 overs) against West Indies at Bridgetown in 1962.

53 – Number of balls Faf du Plessis needed to get off the mark, the most by a South African to get off zero in a Test innings. Since 2000, only Stuart Broad has taken more deliveries to open his account – 62 against New Zealand at Auckland in 2013.

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10.24 – The strike rate of Hashim Amla during the second innings in Delhi, the lowest in history of Test cricket where the batsman batted at least 200 balls. Amla scored just 25 off 244 balls before he was cleaned up by Ravindra Jadeja. AB de Villiers in the same innings scored 43 off 297 balls at SR 14.47, third lowest in Test history. (The following table shows only those innings where balls faced are known. According to some unconfirmed reports, Pakistan’s Hanif Mohammad scored 20 off 223 balls against England at Lord’s in 1954 at SR 8.96).

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0.64 – The run rate of partnership between AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla (27 off 253 balls), the lowest in history of Tests with minimum 100 balls. The previous record was 0.76 between New Zealand’s Chris Harris and Mark Richardson (16 off 125 balls) against West Indies at Grenada in 2002.

108 – Number of consecutive deliveries bowled by Ravindra Jadeja without conceding a run, the third longest scoreless streak in the history of Test cricket, behind only South Africa’s Hugh Tayfield (137) against England at Durban in 1957 and India’s Bapu Nadkarni (131) against England at Chennai in 1964. Nadkarni bowled 21 overs and five balls without conceding a run. According to the Times, he was immediately taken off by the captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi after he conceded a run. 

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Fair to say Kohli was happy with the win // BCCI 

0.56 – The economy rate of Jadeja in the fourth innings against South Africa, the lowest in the history of Tests by a bowler who bowled at least 40 overs. Jadeja bowled 46 overs and conceded just 26 runs. The previous record was by West Indies’ Lance Gibbs (53.3 overs for 38 runs at 0.71 runs per over) against India at Bridgetown in 1962. 

8 – Number of times Indian batsmen who have scored a century in each innings in Tests. Ajinkya Rahane became fifth Indian batsman to achieve this feat in the Delhi Test. The other four are Sunil Gavaskar (thrice), Rahul Dravid (twice), Vijay Hazare and Virat Kohli. 

5 – Number of man-of-the-series awards Ravichandran Ashwin has bagged in his Test career, the joint-most by any Indian, equaling Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag. However, Ashwin has played just 32 Tests compared to Tendulkar’s 200 and Sehwag’s 103. Interestingly, India have won six Test series since Ashwin’s debut and he has bagged man-of-the-series award in five of those. 

337 – Number of runs by which India won the match, their largest win in terms of runs in Tests. The previous best was 320 runs against Australia at Mohali in 2008. 

90.00 – India’s win percentage in their last 10 Tests at home. They have won nine out of last ten matches. The game they didn’t win was in Bangalore against South Africa last month where there was no play on four days due to rain. Since losing the series to England in 2012, they have won four Tests against Australia, two against West Indies and three against South Africa.