KARACHI: The first day of the Cape Town Test between India and South Africa saw 23 wickets tumble. This stands as the highest number of wickets to fall on the opening day of a match since 1902.
In 1902, during the match between England and Australia, 25 wickets fell on the first day. In 1890, 22 wickets were taken on the opening day of a match. Overall, this marks the fourth-highest tally of wickets in a single day.
In 1888, during the England-Australia match, 27 wickets fell on the second day. In 1896, the second day of the first Test saw 24 wickets fall. Similarly, in 2018, the second day of the India-Afghanistan match in Chennai witnessed 24 wickets taken.
In Cape Town, during the South Africa-Australia Test in 2011, 23 wickets were lost on the second day of the match.
Meanwhile, the first two innings lasted 349 balls, the second-fewest in 147 years of test cricket. The only shorter instance was 287 deliveries between Australia and England in 1902.
Earlier, India's last six wickets in the first innings fell without adding any runs to the scoreboard.
This marks the first instance in Test cricket where six wickets collapsed within a span of just 11 balls, an unprecedented occurrence in the sport's history. Previously, there were only four recorded instances of five wickets falling without a run being scored.
Prior to this, the narrowest run margin during the fall of six wickets stood at just 1 run. Notably, during the Rawalpindi Test in 1965, New Zealand faced a similar situation, losing six wickets with the addition of only one run.
In another record, seven players had a score of 0 - this happened for the first time in Test history
Six Indian players were out for zero, with none of them scoring a run – Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Prasidh Krishna. Mukesh Kumar remained not out without scoring any runs.
India equalled the record for the most ducks in an innings with 6, along with seven instances where seven players were out for zero in an innings before.
On the other hand, the 55 scored by South Africa is the lowest ever total by any team against India in Test history.
This was also the lowest score after choosing to bat at home by South Africa since 1889.
South Africa lost three more wickets in the second innings to finish at 62/3 at stumps on day one. South Africa still trail India by 36 runs
Faizan Lakhani Faizan Lakhani is Deputy Editor (Sports) at Geo News.