Statistical Review: India vs New Zealand – Day 1 of the first Test 1
India vs New Zealand - Day 1 (1st Test)

Opening day of the 3-match Test series between India and New Zealand was very entertaining. It is also a historical Test match for India as it is India’s 500th Test match.

On the day 1, India decided to bat first after winning the toss. At the stumps of day 1, India managed to score 291/9.

Brief Scores: India – 291/9 (Murali Vijay 65, Cheteshwar Pujara 62, Trent Boult 3/57)

Here are some statistical highlights of day 1 of the 1st Test:

  1. This Test is India’s 500th Test. India becomes 4th team to play 500 Test matches after England (976), Australia (791) and West Indies (517).

 

  1. Indian batsmen Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara put on a 112-runs partnership for the 2nd wicket. It was India’s 4th highest 2nd wicket partnership against New Zealand in home Test.

 

  1. On the opening day of the Test series, Indian wicket-keeper batsman Wriddhiman Saha was bowled for a duck. Saha became only 2nd Indian wicket-keeper batsman to score a duck against New Zealand in a home Test. Kiran More (at Hyderabad, Deccan in 1988) was the first Indian batsman to score a duck against New Zealand in a home Test.

 

  1. On the day 1, New Zealand left-arm pacers have picked up total 4 wickets (Trent Boult 3/57 and Neil Wagner 1/42) during India’s 291/9 innings. It was the second time that New Zealand left-arm pacers took total 4 wickets in a Test innings on the Indian soil. The previous one was in Delhi in 1965 (Richard Collinge 4/89).

However, New Zealand pacers have never picked up more than 4 wickets in a Test innings on the Indian soil.

 

  1. On the day 1, New Zealand spinners also took total 5 wickets (Mitchell Santner 3/77, Ish Sodhi 1/50 and Mark Craig 1/59) out of India’s 9 dismissals. It was the 4th time that New Zealand spinners took 5 or more wickets in the 1st innings of a Test match against India on the Indian soil.

 

  1. Ravichandran Ashwin once again played a good knock for India as he scored 40 runs before getting out. With this knock, Ashwin has scored total 275 runs in 2016 Test and also becomes the most Test runs scorer for India in 2016 after surpassing KL Rahul (268 runs).

Ashwin is also leading in the list of most no. of Test wickets for India in 2016 with 17 wickets. Apart from these, Ashwin (2 centuries) has also hit most no. of Test centuries for India in 2016.