Records galore at Ban-galore

Rahul Dravid’s 19 runs in this test is the highest score ever by a right-handed, January-born, Mach3-using, clean-shaven, Indian ex-captain on a Saturday morning in the first innings of any test match against Pakistan in the month of December. It is true that Kapil Dev also January-born, had scored 21 runs against Pakistan at Bangalore in December 1989, after he became an ex-captain but that was on a Saturday afternoon, not morning. Moreover, he sported a moustache and was not clean-shaven. So, Dravid’s score can safely be taken into the record books.

So far, Tendulkar has scored 75 centuries in both versions of the game. Some fans say that if you counted as ‘deemed centuries’, the 25 times he has been out when he was in the 90s, the tally is actually 100 centuries. Opponents argue that if you watched the videotapes of all his 75 centuries and exclude those innings in which he had enjoyed ‘lives’, when the fielding team had dropped easy catches or when the umpire did not uphold a very confident appeal for lbw though Hawkeye cameras later showed that he was obviously in front of the stumps, then only 8 of his centuries would pass muster. But, the die-hard proponents hit back by saying that if Tendulkar had played this test in Bangalore, surely he would have notched up a century in each innings, when lesser batsman like Pathan could manage one. So, the tally according to them is 102. The argument continues. Meanwhile Tendulkar issued a typical pious statement that he would count the century he missed in Bangalore this time as one of the best he had not scored, but what was important was that the team must win, the country must get prosperous and the nation must stay united.

When Sourav Ganguly was on 178, he had created the record for the maximum number of blinks ( 7500) by any Indian batsman adjusting his contact lens. Previous record was held by Krish Srikkanth ( 7498) who had not even used contact lens.