Tendulkar’s first and Haddin’s captaincy - A day of unprecedented events

Caught bat-pad off a leggie

In 1996 it was Peter McIntyre, in 1998 it was Shane Warne and in 2008 it was Cameroon White. These are the Aussie leg-spinners who have got Sachin Tendulkar out in Test matches in India. The common thing in all the first two dismissals was that Tendulkar was caught at the first slip by Mark Waugh, Mark Taylor respectively. Tendulkar was caught at covers by Michael Clarke at Bangalore five years ago. In the subsequent Test match at Delhi, White had him caught at first slip where Matthew Hayden pouched a sitter.

Steve Smith, a part-time wrist spinner got Tendulkar caught at forward short-leg. It was first time that an Australian leg spinner got Tendulkar in that fashion in India.

Where is Decision Review System (DRS)?

Cheteshwar Pujara, the run machine was given out leg before when he had hit the ball. It was an umpiring error from Aleem Dar. Pujara lumbered off the wicket reluctantly. So the debate is open again – should India approve UDRS? We know Pujara’s answer.

Against the run of play:

Shikhar Dhawan never looked like getting out on Saturday. He took the Australian bowlers to the cleaners and dominated them. On Sunday, Dhawan was out caught at silly point while defending off spinner Nathan Lyon. It was against the run of play. He secured a lot of records – highest scorer for India on debut, fastest centurion on debut, first Indian opener to score a century on debut. He missed a few records as well – missing the record of scoring most number of boundaries in an innings on debut, missing the record of being the first Indian to score a double ton on debut.

Skipper Brad Haddin:

Till the last Test match, ‘keeper Matthew Wade’s injury concerned the team management. He played the Test, scored a fifty and kept well. Brad Haddin walked in the team because of Wade’s injury. On the fourth day at Mohali, skipper Michael Clarke suffered from a back spasm. He went off the field. Haddin, the senior member of the side, took the mantle of captaincy.

If Clarke does not get fit in time, we might see Haddin captaining the side for the fourth Test in Delhi since Shane Watson hasn’t flown in yet after leaving for Australia after 2nd Test. So the tour continues to get unpredictable for the Aussies.

Statistician’s delight:

1) This was the third occasion when a team has registered a first innings score of 499. The previous two occasions were when England scored the same total against Australia at Adelaide in 1892 and at Melbourne in 1920, Australia scored the same number of runs against England. Both England and Australia registered wins on those two occasions.

2) Shikhar Dhawan became the eighth batsman to be dismissed on 187. Sir Jack Hobbs has been dismissed twice on the same score; against South Africa in 1910 at Cape Town and versus Australia at Adelaide in 1912. Ravi Shastri was dismissed on 187 against England at the Oval in 1990.