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Stats Analysis

First-day wickets tally climbs to 34

Stats highlights from the first day of the third Test between India and South Africa in Nagpur

Shiva Jayaraman
25-Nov-2015
Morne Morkel fires in a delivery, India v South Africa, 3rd Test, Nagpur, 1st day, November 25, 2015

Morne Morkel's 3 for 35 is his best performance in Tests in India.  •  Associated Press

1974-75 The only time teams batting first were dismissed on the first day in three or more Tests of a series in India before this. It had happened in a five-Test series between India and West Indies, when India had got bowled out the first day of three Tests. It was also only the seventh time in Tests that teams were bowled out on the first day in each match of a three-Test series. The last such occurrence was in the Trans-Tasman Trophy in 1999-200.
34 Wickets that have fallen on the first day of Tests in this series, including the 12 in Nagpur. There are only three series in which more wickets have fallen on the first day in India - the highest being the 42 that fell during the 1952-53 series between India and Pakistan. This is also the most wickets that have fallen on the first day of a series in India involving three or fewer Tests. The previous highest had also involved these two teams, in 2007-08, when 28 wickets had fallen on the first day of the Tests. This was also only the 11th time that 12 or more wickets fell on the first day of a Test in India - two of those instances have come in this series.
1 Number of times before this match that three spinners bowled within the first 20 overs of a Test in India since 2002. Three Sri Lanka spinners - Rangana Herath, Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan - had bowled within the first 20 overs of the first innings in Kanpur in 2009-10. In this Test, Simon Harmer, Dean Elgar and Imran Tahir bowled early in the first session - it was also the first instance of a visiting team bowling two spinners in the first ten overs of a Test in India since 2002.
3-35 Morne Morkel's bowling figures in Nagpur - his best in Tests in India, improving the 3 for 63 he took in Kanpur in 2008. It was also his second-best figures in a Test without Dale Steyn. In six Tests without Steyn, Morkel has taken 13 wickets at 41.76. When playing with Steyn, Morkel has taken 208 wickets at 28.75.
7000 First-class runs for M Vijay. He became the 111th India player to make at least 7000 first-class runs. Vijay has exactly 7000 at an average of 46.05, including 17 hundreds and 29 fifties.
50 Test wickets taken by Imran Tahir after dismissing R Ashwin in India's first innings. Tahir is the 31st South Africa bowler to complete 50 wickets in Tests. Only four other South African bowlers - Nicky Boje, Makhaya Ntini, Lance Klusener and Jacques Kallis - have taken more Tests than Tahir's 19 to get to the landmark. Tahir has 50 wickets at 42.32.
5 Number of times in Tests against South Africa that India's No. 8 has made a score higher than Ravindra Jadeja's 34. The last time was when Harbhajan Singh made 40 in the Cape Town Test in 2010-11. MS Dhoni's 132* is the highest by an India No. 8 against South Africa in Tests.
250 First-class wickets taken by Simon Harmer after his four-for in India's innings; he now has 250 wickets at 33.85 from 67 first-class games. His 4 for 78 was his third four-wicket haul in five Tests. Harmer has 19 Test wickets at 27.57.
6 Number of times Vijay has been out lbw in his last ten Test innings. His dismissal to Morkel was the 16th time Vijay was dismissed in this manner in 58 innings as an opener. Among Test openers with at least 50 dismissals, Vijay lbw dismissal percentage of 28.07% (16/57) is the third highest after Darren Ganga (22/64, 34.38%) and Shane Watson (16/50, 32.00%).
2008 The last time India lost six wickets for a score lower than 125 in the first innings of a Test at home. That was also against South Africa, in Ahmedabad, when India were 55 for 6. Five of the top ten such collapses for India in Tests since 2000 have come against South Africa.

Shiva Jayaraman is a senior sub-editor (stats) at ESPNcricinfo.com. @shiva_cricinfo