Ajaz Patel. (Photo Source: Getty Images)
Visiting side New Zealand (NZ) staged a comeback from what looked like a precarious position to complete a magnanimous whitewash over Team India (IND), that too away from home. As a result, this victory puts a dent in India’s hopes of qualification for the WTC Final but gives New Zealand a massive boost.
Proceedings started with Ravindra Jadeja (5/55) completing his fifer and setting India a target of 147 runs to avoid a Test series whitewash at home. Captain Rohit Sharma hit some early boundaries. But it didn’t amount to much as India slipped from 13/0 to 29/5, with Ajaz Patel (6/57) the chief architect of the collapse.
Rishabh Pant (64 off 57) was at his swashbuckling best and built helpful stands of 42 with Ravindra Jadeja and 35 with Washington Sundar. India then lost their last three wickets without adding to the score to lose by a close 26 runs and suffer a Test series whitewash at home after 24 years.
Here are the most important stats highlights from final game of IND vs NZ Test series:
6 – Ravindra Jadeja took his 16th fifer in Test cricket and moved past Late Bishan Singh Bedi to become the player with the sixth most fifers for India in Test cricket.
1 – The veteran southpaw Ravindra Jadeja took two fifers in a single Test for the first time in his career.
5 – Jadeja became the fifth player to make 25 fifty-plus scores and take 15 fifers in his Test career. Ian Botham, Shakib al Hasan, Daniel Vettori and Kapil Dev are the others.
33.97 – Rohit Sharma’s batting average as an opener-captain in Test cricket. Among all opener-captains with a minimum of 1200 runs, only Kraigg Brathwaite and Michael Vaughan average lower than Sharma.
91 – The number of runs Rohit Sharma made in 6 innings in this series. Among all Indian captains who batted in the top 7, and batted in a minimum of 6 innings in a single Test series, Rohit’s 91 are the fourth lowest.
1 – Ajaz Patel’s 25 wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai are the most by any visiting bowler at a single ground in India in Tests. He broke Ian Botham’s record of 22 at the same stadium.
1 – Patel’s three fifers at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai are the joint-most by any visiting bowler at a single ground in India in Tests. He matched Ian Botham’s record of three at the same stadium.
1 – Just like Jadeja, Ajaz Patel also took fifers in both innings of a Test for the first time in his career.
2 – Ajaz Patel‘s three fifers at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai are the joint second-most among all bowlers at that particular ground. Both Sir Ian Botham and Ravichandran Ashwin have as many, while Pragyan Ojha is the only bowler with four.
2 – Ajaz became the second bowler ever to take 2 10-wicket match hauls at a single ground in India in Tests. The only other player is Anil Kumble who had two 10-wicket match hauls at Delhi. Incidentally, Patel at Mumbai and Kumble at Delhi both took all 10 wickets in an innings.
24 – This test marked the 24th instance of two different bowlers taking 10-wicket match-hauls in the same Test. The 23rd instance was in the second Test of this series at Pune where Mitchell Santner took 13 and Washington Sundar took 11. The previous instance before that came was back in 2016.
4 – This was the fourth instance of two different bowlers both taking two fifers each in a Test as done by both Ravindra Jadeja and Ajaz Patel. The last instance was in 2004 when Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne were at the forefront.
10 – Rishabh Pant became the tenth player, and the third Indian to make fifty-plus scores in both innings of a Test at more than a run-a-ball, where known. Yashasvi Jaiswal had also done so in the Kanpur Test against Bangladesh.
10 – Pant also became the tenth player, but only the second Indian to reach his fifty in less than 50 balls in both innings of a Test, where known. Yashasvi Jaiswal had also done so in the Kanpur Test against Bangladesh.
The two records mentioned above happen to have an overlap of as many as seven instances, three of which have come in 2024. The third one was Pathum Nissanka who did so against England at The Oval earlier this year.
54.50 – Rishabh Pant’s batting average in the fourth innings in Tests. Among all Indian players with a minimum of 400 runs in the last innings, only Sunil Gavaskar (58.25) and Vijay Manjrekar (64.57) have better averages.
2000 – The last time India were whitewashed in a Test series at home. India lost the two-match series 0-2 to the Hansie Cronje-led South Africa. India had also lost a one-off test against the Mike Brearley-led England at the Wankhede Stadium in 1980, which by some definitions can count as a whitewash.
10 – This was the tenth instance of the home team being whitewashed in a Test series of 3 matches or more. The last instance was in 2022 when England “Bazballed” Pakistan into the stratosphere. In fact, Team India have inflicted such a whitewash before, against Sri Lanka in 2017, while New Zealand have been the victim twice but never the assailants before.
3 – Rohit Sharma became the third Indian captain to be whitewashed in a Test series at home. Sachin Tendulkar was the captain in the whitewash to South Africa, while Gundappa Viswanath led in the aforementioned one-off Test.
2 – Tom Latham’s three wins now puts him joint-second on the list of visiting captains with the most Test wins in India. Clive Lloyd won six of his 11 Tests in charge while Gerry Alexander, Hansie Cronje, Tony Grieg and Bill Lawry all won three matches out of five in charge. This was Latham’s fourth Test in charge in India.
2 – Rohit Sharma’s fifth loss as captain in a Test at home means he now has the second most Test losses at home by an Indian captain. Tiger Pataudi leads the list with nine, while both Kapil Dev and Mohammad Azharuddin had four.
4 – This match was India’s fourth home Test loss in 2024 marking the joint most number of Test India have lost at home in a single year. India also lost four home Tests all the way back in 1969.