Stats: Instances when India reduced the opposition to 0/1 in the first match of away Test series

Team India started off on a dream note in the first Test of their tour of South Africa 2018. Ace bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar made a mockery of the opposition top order with some exceptional display of swing bowling. He accounted for the dismissal of the top three South African batsmen in his first three overs.

He started off the absolute carnage in the very first over by getting rid of the in-form batsman Dean Elgar. He managed to get an outside off the willow of Elgar to have the hosts reeling on 0/1 by the end of the first over of the first Test at Cape Town. Interestingly, this is not the first time when the Indian team managed to achieve this distinction.

Over the years, in the history of Test cricket, there have been four instances when team India has had the opposition struggling at 0/1 in the first Test of an away Test series. Among these four instances, two have come against South Africa. The first instance when the team had achieved this feat was in the year 1992/93. The Indian team had toured South Africa.

Interestingly, this was also India’s first tour to South Africa in the history of the game. It was a delivery from Kapil Dev that dismissed Jimmy Cook on the very first ball of the match. In the very same year, team India toured Sri Lanka for a Test series and a 3-match ODI series. In the first Test, they managed to have the opposition struggling at 0/1.

The third instance when this happened was in the year 2002. The high flying Indian team, under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, had toured England. In the first Test at London, the then ace Indian speedster Zaheer Khan had dismissed Michael Vaughan for a duck.

Earlier in the game, Ashish Nehra had bowled a maiden to Mark Butcher in the very first over. Vaughan played four dot balls before getting dismissed lbw on a duck on the fifth ball of the second over.

Here is a brief look at all the four instances:

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