Who will win the Test mace this time?
As the action keeps unfolding, TimesofIndia.com here takes a look at some of the most interesting statistics so far from this engrossing encounter:
# Australia (469) have registered their highest total in Tests at neutral venues, bettering the 467 vs Pakistan at Colombo (PSS) in October 2002. The said score is now the first total of 300-plus in the final of the WTC.
# Steve Smith, with his marvellous 121, has emulated Joe Root’s tally of nine hundreds against India in Tests. Smith’s first hundred in five Tests at neutral venues is his 31st overall – his 15th in overseas Tests. Just two Australian players have registered more hundreds – Ricky Ponting (41) and Steve Waugh (32).
# Smith enjoys batting a lot at The Oval – his tally being 546 runs at an average of 91.00, including three hundreds and a fifty, in seven innings. In his first two Tests at this venue, he had posted back to back hundreds vs England – 138 not out in 2013 & 143 in 2015.
# Smith (2042 at an average of 65.87 in 19 Tests) has become the third Australian batter after Ricky Ponting (2555) and Michael Clarke (2049) to complete 2,000-plus runs against India.
# Travis Head played an exceptional innings of 163 off 174 balls – his second highest score in Tests behind the 175 vs West Indies at Adelaide in December 2022. His innings is the second highest by an Australian batter in Tests at neutral venue behind the 164 by Warren Bardsley vs South Africa at Lord’s in 1912.
# Travis Head has recorded four 150-plus scores in Tests. Apart from his 163 & 175, as mentioned above, he made 161 vs Sri Lanka at Canberra in 2019 and 152 vs England at Brisbane in 2021.
# Travis Head enjoys an average of 55.56 while aggregating 189, including four hundreds and six fifties, in 18 Tests – the third highest among the batters with 1000-plus runs in the World Test Championship 2021-23 behind the 64.84 by Usman Khawaja and 61.08 by Babar Azam.
# Head and Smith shared a partnership of 285 for the fourth wicket – Australia’s highest for any wicket in Tests at a neutral venue apart from their highest for this wicket-position at The Oval. The said partnership is the highest fourth-wicket stand by any pair at this venue, outstripping the 266 by England’s Wally Hammond and Stan Worthington vs India in 1936.
# Mohammed Siraj (4/108) has produced his fifth four-wicket haul in Tests – all in the overseas Tests – three times vs England and twice vs Australia. His only instance of five wickets in an innings is 5 for 73 vs Australia at Brisbane in January 2021.
# 38 extras (b 13, lb 10, nb 7 & w 8) conceded by India (8.1%) are the joint-second highest in an innings in WTC 2021-23. In India’s innings of 416, England had conceded 40 extras (9.6%) at Birmingham in 2022.
#Ajinkya Rahane has become the seventh Indian fielder to take 100 catches or more in Tests, joining Rahul Dravid (210), VVS Laxman (135), Sachin Tendulkar (115), Virat Kohli (109), Sunil Gavaskar (108) and Mohammad Azharuddin (105).
# Ajinkya Rahane has managed 5020 runs at an average of 38.91, including twelve hundreds and 26 fifties, in 83 Tests to become the 13th Indian player to amass
5000-plus runs in Tests.
# Rahane (89) has become the first Indian batter to post a fifty in the final of the World Test Championship. With 49 in India’s first innings vs New Zealand in the first final of the WTC at Southampton in 2021, he has top-scored for India in both the finals.
#Shardul Thakur (51) registered his fourth fifty in Tests – two each vs Australia and England. Three out of four have been recorded by him at The Oval. In fact, he has become the first Indian batter to post three successive fifties at this venue – 57 & 60 vs England in 2021 and 51 vs Australia in 2023. Just two other visiting batters have achieved the feat – Australia’s Don Bradman (1930 to 1934) and Allan Border (1985 to 1989).
# Shardul Thakur has become the first player to be involved in three century stands for the seventh wicket in the World Test Championship – 123 with Washington Sundar vs Australia at Brisbane in 2021; 109 with Rahane vs Australia in 2023 & 100 with Rishabh Pant vs England in 2021 – the last two at The Oval.
# Rahane and Thakur were associated in India’s first century stand for any wicket in the final of the WTC.
# Rohit Sharma (15), Shubman Gill (13), Cheteshwar Pujara (14) & Virat Kohli (14) have provided the first instance when India’s top four batters posted double-digit scores but failed to reach 20. Overall, the said instance is the eighth in the history of Test Cricket.
# With his second innings’ dismissal of Travis Head, Ravindra Jadeja has become the leading left-arm spinner in terms of wickets (267 at 24.25 in 65 matches for India in Tests, overtaking Bishan Singh Bedi’s tally of 266 (ave 28.71) in 67 Tests. Just three left-arm spinners have bagged more wickets than Jadeja – 433 (ave 28.07) in 93 Tests by Rangana Herath; 362 (ave 34.36) in 113 Tests by Daniel Vettori & 297 (ave 25.83) in 86 Tests by Derek Underwood.
# The aforesaid dismissal of Jadeja is his 75th in 24 Tests at 25.70, including three five-wicket hauls and one instance of ten wickets in a Test match. He has become the fourth Indian bowler to bag 75 wickets or more in the WTC, joining Ravichandran Ashwin (132), Mohammed Shami (83) and Jasprit Bumrah (79).
# Smith’s tally of 466 (ave 93.20) in six innings is the highest by any batter in the knock-out matches of international cricket and the final of the World Test Championship. He remains the only batter to hit two centuries and three fifties in such matches.
Stats Courtesy: Rajesh Kumar
