South Africa v India, 2018: 1st Test, Day 1 – Statistical Highlights

The South Africa-India series started in one of the most exciting ways with the bowlers of both the teams dominating in the helpful conditions. After electing to bat first, South Africa were reduced to 12/3 by Bhuvneshwar Kumar before AB de Villiers’ counter-attacking innings along with their skipper Faf du Plessis rescued the home side. The lower order too added a few runs before they were bowled out for 286. India lost both their openers and captain Virat Kohli before stumps and their last two specialist batsmen will be facing a 4-men pace attack on the 2nd day.

All the stats and numbers that were created during an exciting first day of the series:

4 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar recorded the fourth instance of India reducing the home team to 0/1 in the first match of a Test series. Kapil Dev in South Africa, 1992/93 and in Sri Lanka, 1993 and also Zaheer Khan in England, 2002 took a wicket before the home team scored a run in the series.

5 – Runs scored Virat Kohli in his first International innings of 2018. In the previous four years, he scored more than 90 in each of his first innings of the calendar year. (123 in 2014, 147 in 2015, 91 in 2016 and 122 in 2017)

10 – Shikhar Dhawan’s wicket was Dale Steyn’s 10th wicket in Test cricket in the form of “caught and bowled”. He now has the most number of caught and bowled wickets among pacers in this format along with Richard Hadlee.

12 – South Africa’s total of 12 at fall of the 3rd wicket is the joint 3rd lowest by them in Test cricket. They lost their 3rd wicket at 10 runs against England in 1889 and for 11 runs against India in 1992 both at home. They lost their first three wickets for 12 runs against Pakistan in 1997 Faisalabad Test.

12 – The 12 runs are the lowest from which South Africa had a century stand for the 4th wicket in Test cricket. The previous lowest score at the start of a 4th wicket stand for them in this format was 17 runs when RH Catterall and MJ Susskind put on 112 against England in 1924.

29 – Balls India needed to pick first three wickets of South Africa innings. In the last 20 years, South Africa never played fewer than seven overs in the first innings of a Test match for losing their 3rd wicket.

100 – Quinton de Kock became the 5th South African and the 38th player over to take 100 catches as a wicketkeeper in Test cricket. Virat Kohli’s catch was the 100th catch taken by De Kock in this format.

114 – The 114-run partnership between Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers is the pair’s first century stand in Test cricket since their 204-run stand in the 4th innings of the 2013 Johannesburg Test against India. In the last four years, the two batsmen paired 11 times in this format but never had a 50+ stand before this innings.

418 – Dale Steyn is now the 10th highest wicket-taker in the Test cricket with 418 wickets. He went past Harbhajan Singh’s 417 wickets wicket the wicket of Dhawan.