India tour of England 2014: Numbers at The Oval

Chandrasekhar spun India to their first win on English soil in 1971 in the iconic ground.

A dejected India move to The Oval for the fifth (and final) Test of the 2014 tour following the humiliating defeat at Old Trafford. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at the key numbers at England’s oldest Test ground.

The Oval (they now call it The KIA Oval) does not have the heritage and grandeur of Lord’s, but Surrey’s home ground has its own share of fans. Traditionally the venue of the last Test of the English season, The Oval has witnessed some of the most iconic contests and performances.

Let us have a look at the numbers at The Oval, then.

	First Test	Tests	Decided	% Decided	Balls	Runs	Wickets	Ave	SR	Econ
The Oval	1880	96	59	61.5%	1,96,321	93,235	2,893	32.23	67.9	2.85
Old Trafford	1884	76	41	53.9%	1,47,543	67,571	2,153	30.96	68.5	2.74
Lord’s	1884	129	81	62.8%	2,58,926	1,24,252	3,950	31.46	65.6	2.88
Trent Bridge	1899	60	37	62.7%	1,30,018	59,339	1,830	32.43	71.0	2.74
Headingley	1899	73	55	75.3%	1,46,752	68,599	2,313	29.66	63.4	2.80
Edgbaston	1902	47	32	68.1%	90,900	44,518	1,400	31.80	64.9	2.94
Bramall Lane	1902	1	1	100.0%	1,564	823	40	20.58	39.1	3.16
Riverside	2003	5	5	100.0%	8,083	4,767	152	31.36	53.2	3.54
Sophia Gardens	2009	2	1	50.0%	4,147	2,339	50	46.78	82.9	3.38
Rose Bowl	2011	2	1	50.0%	3,829	2,177	54	40.31	70.9	3.42

As one can see, there is not much of a difference between the numbers at The Oval and the other English grounds. Let us, then, look back at some of the best performers at the historic ground.

Top run-scorers at The Oval:

Overall			Overseas			Indians
	R	Ave		R	Ave		R	Ave
Len Hutton	1,521	89.47	Don Bradman	553	138.25	Rahul Dravid	443	110.75
Graham Gooch	1,097	52.23	Allan Border	478	79.67	Sachin Tendulkar	272	45.33
Wally Hammond	930	71.53	Bruce Mitchell	448	112.00	Ravi Shastri	253	84.33
Herbert Sutcliffe	916	91.60	Rahul Dravid	443	110.75	Gundappa Viswanath	241	48.20
David Gower	905	47.63	Hashim Amla	423	211.50	Sunil Gavaskar	240	60.00

Highest scores at The Oval:

Overall		Overseas		Indians
	Runs		Runs		Runs
Len Hutton	364	Hashim Amla	311*	Sunil Gavaskar	221
Hashim Amla	311*	Viv Richards	291	Rahul Dravid	217
Viv Richards	291	Bill Ponsford	266	Ravi Shastri	187
Bill Ponsford	266	Javed Miandad	260	Rahul Dravid	146*
Javed Miandad	260	Don Bradman	244	Vijay Merchant	128

Most wickets at The Oval:

Overall			Overseas			Indians
	W	Ave		W	Ave		W	Ave
Ian Botham	52	26.51	Shane Warne	32	22.25	Kapil Dev	10	47.00
Derek Underwood	45	27.80	Michael Holding	27	14.55	Bhagwat Chandrasekhar	8	14.25
Jim Laker	40	15.95	Dennis Lillee	27	17.59	S Sreesanth	8	32.00
Tony Lock	34	15.82	Hugh Trumble	27	17.66	Srinivas Venkataraghavan	8	30.12
Bob Willis	33	28.12	Fred Spofforth	20	12.50	Mohammad Nissar	6	26.00
						Bishan Bedi	6	42.83
						Anil Kumble	6	58.33

Best bowling at The Oval:

Overall		Overseas		Indians
	Figures		Figures		Figures
Devon Malcolm	9/57	Muttiah Muralitharan	9/65	Bhagwat Chandrasekhar	6/38
Muttiah Muralitharan	9/65	Hugh Trumble	8/65	Raman Surendranath	5/75
Syd Barnes	8/29	Michael Holding	8/92	Harbhajan Singh	5/115
Hugh Trumble	8/65	Gerry Hazlitt	7/25	Mohammad Nissar	5/120
Michael Holding	8/92	Michael Kasprowicz	7/36	Manoj Prabhakar	4/74

Highest team scores at The Oval:

Overall		Overseas teams		India
	Scores		Scores		Scores
England	903/7 decl	Pakistan	708	India	664
Australia	701	Australia	701	India	606/9 decl
Australia	695	Australia	695	India	508
West Indies	692/8 decl	West Indies	692/8 decl	India	429/8
West Indies	687/8 decl	West Indies	687/8 decl	India	410

Lowest team scores at The Oval:

Overall		Overseas teams		India
	Scores		Scores		Scores
Australia	44	Australia	44	India	98
England	52	Australia	63	India	140
Australia	63	Australia	65	India	194
Australia	65	Australia	68	India	202
Australia	68	Australia	80	India	222

 

 

 

 

Biggest partnerships at The Oval:

	Overall			India
Wicket	Runs	Batsmen		Runs	Batsmen
1st	290	Geoff Pullar	Colin Cowdrey	213	Sunil Gavaskar	Chetan Chauhan
2nd	451	Bill Ponsford	Don Bradman	153	Sunil Gavaskar	Dilip Vengsarkar
3rd	377*	Hashim Amla	Jacques Kallis	93	Ajit Wadekar	Dilip Sardesai
4th	266	Stan Worthington	Wally Hammond	144	Sachin Tendulkar	Amit Mishra
5th	191	Javed Miandad	Imran Khan	113	Rahul Dravid	VVS Laxman
6th	215	Len Hutton	Joe Hardstaff jr	130	Kapil Dev	Syed Kirmani
7th	142	Jack Sharp	Kenneth Hutchings	110	Ravi Shastri	Kapil Dev
8th	217	Tom Graveney	John Murray	74	Kapil Dev	Kiran More
9th	190	Asif Iqbal	Intikhab Alam	36	Rahul Dravid	RP Singh
10th	110	Ken Higgs	John Snow	73	Anil Kumble	S Sreesanth

Catch all the coverage of India’s tour to England here

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Deputy Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs at http://ovshake.blogspot.in and can be followed on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ovshake42)

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