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Follow UsThe 100 Test victory club
New Zealand became the seventh side to win 100 or more Test matches, when they trounced India by 10 wickets, in the recent Test match at Basin Reserve, Wellington.
Note: New Zealand took the longest to reach this landmark - 441 Tests and also 90 years. The previous record was held by India, who took 432 Tests.
India’s 18th ten-wicket defeat
A victory by ten-wickets is usually considered the highest in terms of a margin, after a win by an innings. The Wellington Test was India’s 18th such defeat in their Test history. This incidentally, was Virat Kohli’s first such loss as India Test captain, while it was Kane Williamson’s first such win as New Zealand captain. India’s first 10-wicket defeat came at Lord’s in June 1946. Since then until December 2002, the team has suffered 10-wicket defeats on 14 occasions. However, since 2010, it has occurred only 4 times, as listed below.
A statistical look at India’s 18 – ten-wicket defeats in Test cricket
A rare ten-wicket win for the Kiwi, but not so rare against India
Meanwhile, New Zealand achieved one of its rarest ten-wicket victories in Tests. They have so far in their Test history have done it only on five occasions. Their first such win coming against India at Christchurch in February 1990. As an opponent India has lost to the Kiwis thrice, while Zimbabwe and West Indies have done so once each. Basin Reserve at Wellington has witnessed such wins four times.
When extras were restricted
The Wellington Test saw only three runs via byes and leg-byes (1 bye and 2 leg-byes). These are the second fewest conceded in a completed Test match via byes and leg-byes. Previously, in the Lord’s Test between England and New Zealand just two leg-byes were conceded in the whole match.
The interesting fact in the just concluded Test at Wellington was that just 14 extras were conceded by both the sides. In Test cricket history this is the only 15th occasion a completed Test match has seen such a few number of extras, i.e extras of 14 or less. Since 1888, when 14 or less extras were conceded for the first time, until 1958, i.e in a span of 70 years, only on 13 occasions extras of 14 or more were conceded in a completed Test match. However, from 1959 to 2020 (61 years), this has occurred just twice and both have involved India.
Note: Incidentally, the 14 extras conceded at Wellington is the lowest in a completed Test in New Zealand. The previous fewest was 17 extras at Hamilton (NZ v Ban) in Feb-Mar 2019.
Mayank – in good company
After the Wellington Test match, Mayank Agarwal has now aggregated 964 runs in his Test career after appearing in his 10th match. Among Indians, this is now the second highest run aggregate after Sunil Gavaskar’s aggregate of 978 runs after his first ten Tests.
Jamieson - a prolific debutant
Kyle Jamieson at Wellington, became the only fourth New Zealand player to register a 40-plus score and also claim four or more wickets on their Test debut
Note: Taylor still remains the only player in Test cricket history to make a 100 and also take a 5-wicket haul on debut.
Jamieson, meanwhile, became the only second player, after England’s Graham Stevenson, in international cricket history to score at least 25 runs and also capture at least 2 wickets in both their respective Test and ODI debuts.
Postscript:
Since his 136 in the Test against Bangladesh at Kolkata in Nov 2019, Virat Kohli’s record in all internationals for India has been: 20 mts, 20 inns, 712 runs, ave 41.88, 50s: 6 (HS 94*). This means he is now without a three-figure score in his last 20 innings from December 2019. Only on two other occasions in his career he has gone through a longer phase, in terms of innings, without making a century.
25 – from Feb 2014 to Oct 2014
24 – from Feb 2011 to Sep 2011
20 – from Dec 2019 to date
(All records mentioned above are complete and updated until 25 Feb 2020)
