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India vs Sri Lanka 2015, and teams winning a three-Test series after losing the first Test

Overall, it was the 12th occasion of a team winning a three-Test series 2-1 after losing the first Test.

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The first Test series victory for India in 22 years in Sri Lanka did not come easily © AFP
The first Test series victory for India in 22 years in Sri Lanka did not come easily © AFP

India won the second and third Tests after losing the first to win the three-Test series 2-1 in Sri Lanka. Bharath Seervi lists similar instances in Test cricket history.

The first Test series victory for India in 22 years in Sri Lanka did not come easily. Though they had a good start to the series, they ended up losing the first Test. At one point of time, statisticians were digging out the last occasion when India won a Test by an innings in Sri Lanka. But the next day the team ended up losing the match by 63 runs while chasing 176 in the fourth innings. Scorecard: India vs Sri Lanka, 3rd Test at Colombo

The young side did hold their nerves and won the next two Tests with huge margins of 278 runs and 117 runs. This was only the second time India won a three- Test series after losing the first Test. The first time they did was in the historic Border-Gavaskar Trophy of 2000-01 played in India in which India lost the first Test by ten wickets and won the next two Tests by margins of 171 runs and 2 wickets including a victory at Eden Gardens after being asked to follow-on.

Overall, it was the 12th occasion of a team winning a three-Test series 2-1 after losing the first Test. The last instance was about 7 years earlier when England won the last two of the three-Test series in New Zealand after losing the first. Akshar Patel’s 4 for 0 and similar bowling figures in First-Class cricket

The table below lists all the 12 instances with the result margins in detail.

Teams winning a 3-Test series after losing the first Test of the series

Year Winning team Losing team Match results Venue
England lost by 9 wickets MCG
1882/83 England Australia England won by an innings & 27 runs MCG
England won by 69 runs SCG
England lost by 61 runs Lord’s
1888 England Australia England won by an innings & 137 runs Oval
England won by an innings & 21 runs Old Trafford
South Africa lost by 137 runs New Wanderers
1994/95 South Africa New Zealand South Africa won by 8 wickets Kingsmead
South Africa won by 7 wickets Newlands
Pakistan lost by an innings & 64 runs Harare
1994/95 Pakistan Zimbabwe Pakistan won by 8 wickets Bulawayo
Pakistan won by 99 runs Harare
Sri Lanka lost by an innings & 40 runs Peshawar
1995 Sri Lanka Pakistan Sri Lanka won by 42 runs Faridabad
Sri Lanka won by 144 runs Sialkot
Sri Lanka lost by 167 runs Premadasa
1998 Sri Lanka New Zealand Sri Lanka won by an innings & 16 runs Galle
Sri Lanka won by 164 runs SSC
England lost by an innings & 28 runs Galle
2000-01 England Sri Lanka England won by 3 wickets Kandy
England won by 4 wickets SSC
India lost by 10 wickets Wankhede
2000-01 India Australia India won by 171 runs Eden Gardens
India won by 2 wickets Chepauk
South Africa lost by 123 runs New Wanderers
2006-07 South Africa India South Africa won by 174 runs Kingsmead
South Africa won by 5 wickets Newlands
South Africa lost by 128 runs St George’s Park
2007-08 South Africa West Indies South Africa won by 7 wickets Newlands
South Africa won by an innings & 100 runs Kingsmead
England lost by 189 runs Hamilton
2007-08 England New Zealand England won by 126 runs Wellington
England won by 121 runs Napier
India lost by 63 runs Galle
2015 India Sri Lanka India won by 278 runs P Sara
India won by 117 runs SSC

–          There were two such series results in a span of six years in the 1880s. The next instance came more than 100 years later, in 1994. Kumar Sangakkara: 15 batting records of the legend

–          Out of the 12, ten such series have been in the last 20 years.

–          Pakistan against Zimbabwe in 1994-95, Sri Lanka against Pakistan in 1995 and England against Sri Lanka in 2000-01 won the second and the third Tests after suffering innings defeats in the first.

–          England in Australia 1883-84, Pakistan in Zimbabwe 1994-95, Sri Lanka in Pakistan 1995, England in Sri Lanka 2000-01, England in New Zealand 2007-08 and India in Sri Lanka 2015 achieved this away from home.

–          England has done this four times which is the most by any team. Incidentally, three of those came away from home.

–          Australia and New Zealand have been on the losing side on three such occasions but have never won any such series.

There have been 36 three-Test series that had ended 2-1. In 12 of those the team winning the first Test went on to lose the next two of the series which — amounting to 33 per cent.

Last year England won the five-Test series 3-1 after trailing 0-1 against India in England.

Australia is the only team to win a five-Test series 3-2 after losing the first two Tests. They did it in Ashes 1936-37. Sanath Jayasuriya, Brian Lara, Mark Wood and others who scored all runs in an innings in boundaries

(Bharath Seervi is a cricket statistician who is obsessed with digging numbers, facts and records related to the game. An active member of Society of Cricket Statisticians of India, he blogs at www.cricketseervistats.blogspot.com. He can be followed on Twitter at @SeerviBharath and on Facebook here)

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