On this day: India put up opening stand featuring 4 batsmen and no wickets lost
We have always heard of partnerships between two players to help the team post a big score. But what if you were told that a total of four players batted as openers in a whole day of Test cricket. Are you wondering how this happened? To understand this in more detail, let us go back to the year 2007. In May 2007, India and Bangladesh were playing a two-match Test series, and the second Test match was played at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka.
India were invited to bat first after losing the toss, and they posted a mammoth total of 610/3 in the first innings. However, they lost their first wicket with their scorecard reading 408. But then, not two, but 4 batsmen helped India post an ‘opening’ partnership of 408.
Wasim Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik came to open the batting for India on the first day. During the Tea break on Day one, Dinesh Karthik got ‘retired hurt’ as he could not withstand the extreme heat. So, Rahul Dravid walked out and joined Jaffer out in the middle. When the Indian team had scored 281 runs in 77 overs, Wasim Jaffer could not carry on any further due to exhaustion. He too retired when he was batting on 138. After this, the legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar joined Dravid.
By the end of day 1, the scorecard read 326/0 in 90 overs. Till that time, a total of four players had batted for India. Rahul Dravid was unbeaten on 88 and Sachin was playing at a score of 9 runs. On the second day, India’s first wicket fell in the form of Rahul Dravid who scored 129 runs off 176 balls. Dinesh Karthik also came back to bat once again and completed his century. He was dismissed for 129.
India posted a huge total of 610/3 in the first innings, with centuries coming from Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar.
In their first innings, Bangladesh scored just 118 and were asked to follow on. In the second innings too, Bangladesh refused to show any fight and were bowled out for 253, as India thrashed their opposition by an innings and 239 runs.
