England vs India 2014 - 1st Test, Day 1: Facts and figures

James Anderson reacts after dismissing Shikhar Dhawan

India won the toss and decided to bat first against England on a ‘brown grass’ pitch, according to Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Despite losing Shikhar Dhawan early, India made steady progress and posted for 106 for 1 at lunch. Murali Vijay in particular was looking for scoring opportunities all the time and made most of the runs through boundaries. Cheteshwar Pujara was stunning with his square cut and cover drive that gave India a move on at a healthy run rate of 3.53 runs an over in the first session.

Here is a look at some of the numbers that may be of your interest from the day’s play:

• 281 – Stuart Binny is the 281st player for India in whites. Mohammad Shami (279) and Rohit Sharma (280) were the last debutants for India when they played their first Test match against West Indies in November 2013.
• 12 – Runs scored by Murali Vijay off James Anderson in the first over of the Test match. It is the 3rd most expensive first over of a Test since 2001. West Indies’ 18 runs in the first 8vs Bangladesh in 2012 when Chris Gayle blasted Sohag Gazi for two sixes, remains the costliest. The last time the first over costed 12 runs was in 1969, when England’s Geoffrey Boycott smashed Sir Garry Sobers of West Indies.
• 51 – Number of wickets James Anderson has picked up at Trent Bridge from 8* Test matches. Also, the first bowler to claim 50 wickets at the ground. Sir Alec Bedser is the next to Anderson with 43 wickets in 6 Tests at Nottingham.
• 356 – Career wickets for Anderson, he now sits at 19th in the all-time leading wicket takers list above Dennis Lillee of Australia and Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka, both of whom have 355 Test scalps.
• 4 – Number of centuries for Murali Vijay. It is also the 30-year-old Tamil Nadu opener’s maiden ton away from home.
• 11 – Number of boundaries Vijay scored in his 50 before lunch.
• 19 – Average runs for the first wicket between Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan in 9 innings outside India.
• 68 – Number of balls taken by Murali Vijay to reach his half century, his quickest in Test matches. It came in his first innings in England, but, as Vijay carried on to convert it to a 100, his 50 off 79 balls against Sri Lanka remains as his fastest.
• 62 – Ajinkya Rahane’s overseas average in four Test matches, excluding the ongoing one.
• 152 – Number of balls taken by India to raise their 100 – their fastest outside India in 3 years.
• 1 – Vijay’s 122* is now the highest individual score by an Indian opener at Trent Bridge bettering Rahul Dravid 117 in 2011. In the process, he became the first opener from India to score a ton on the first day of a tour and also the first man from Tamil Nadu to score a hundred in England.
• 2 – It is also the second highest score by an Indian batsmen on the first day of a Test match next only to Sourav Ganguly’s 136 at the same ground in 1996.
• 3 – Dhoni’s knock of 50* is his third fifty in last 4 innings against England and his 30th overall. This is the right hander’s 15th Test fifty in away fixtures. Among glovemen Dhoni is second only to Mark Boucher, who has 35 half tons to his name as wicket-keeper.
• 100 – The Indian opener’s century is the 100th Test hundred scored on the venue. First ever hundred at Trent Bridge was scored by Englishman Archie MacLaren in 1905.
• 222 – Balls bowled by Moeen Ali to right handers in Test cricket without a single wicket.