India vs England, 2021: 2nd Test, Day 3 - Ashwin creates new records with century, Kohli’s long wait, Siraj’s milestone of sixes and more stats

India are now in a commanding position to win the second Test of the four-match series against England. They have performed wonderfully with the bat and ball in the match till now which is being played at Chepauk. The hosts continued their batting from the second day’s score of 54/1 in the second innings. 

At one stage, India had lost 6 wickets for 106 runs, but skipper Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin took the team to a strong position with a 96-run partnership for the seventh wicket. Virat got out after scoring 62 runs off 149 balls, with 7 fours coming from his bat.

Ravichandran Ashwin hit a magnificent hundred for the home side, smashing 106 runs off 148 balls. He hit 14 fours and 1 six during his superb knock. India got all-out for 286 runs and set a big target of 482 runs for the visitors. England scored 53/3 till the end of the third day’s play.

Let’s look at important stats and numbers from the third day of the second Test between both teams:

Ashwin creates new records with a glorious century

3 – Ravi Ashwin hit his third Test century while batting at number eight. He now holds the record for scoring most Test hundreds at number 8 for India. MS Dhoni, Kapil Dev, and Harbhajan Singh had hit two centuries each at this spot. Overall, Daniel Vettori has hit most tons (4) while batting at number 8.

3 – This was the third instance of Ashwin scoring a hundred and picking up a fifer in the same Test match. He is behind Ian Botham in this regard who achieved this double 5 times in his Test career.

5 – The off-spinner is among the 5 players, who have taken over 300 wickets and scored 5 or more hundreds in Test cricket. Apart from him, Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Daniel Vettori, and Imran Khan have also achieved this milestone.

5 – This was Ashwin’s fifth century in Tests, but first against a different opponent other than West Indies. His first four centuries had all come against West Indies.

Long wait for Kohli

30 – Virat Kohli has now played 30 International matches without scoring a hundred. This is the longest wait for Kohli in hitting a ton.

Fine partnership by Siraj and Ashwin

49 – Ashwin and Mohammed Siraj added 49 runs for the 10th wicket. This is the second-highest partnership by the Indian pair at Chepauk for the last wicket. Before them, Syed Kirmani and Chetan Sharma had a 51-run partnership for the 10th wicket against England in 1985.

Siraj hits two maximums

2- Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj impressed everyone on the third day, but this time with the bat. He hit 2 sixes in his unbeaten knock of 16 runs off 21 balls. He is now at joint-top spot among Indian players with most sixes in a Test innings while batting at number 11. Apart from him, four more Indians have done the same.

Jack Leach impresses with the ball

2010 – English spinner Jack Leach has taken 4-wicket hauls in both the matches of the series. Before him, the last visiting left-arm bowler to take 4-wicket hauls in consecutive Test matches in India was Daniel Vettori in 2010.