IND vs AUS, WTC 2023 Final Day 3 Stats Review: Ajinkya Rahane’s heroics, Shardul Thakur’s feat and other stats

Day 3 of the World Test Championship 2023 Final belonged to India, as Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur’s century partnership helped India reduce the deficit. The Indian bowlers then got the second innings off to a great start as they dismissed Australian top-order batters in quick session. Eventually, Australia finished with a lead of 296 runs.

Speaking about how the day panned out, Scott Boland delivered a peach to dismiss Srikar Bharat on the second ball of the day. Rahane and Thakur led the rescue with a century stand as Rahane rose to his 26th fifty before getting dismissed for 89 off 129 by Pat Cummins. Thakur smashed his third fifty at The Oval before getting dismissed by Cameron Green. Australians bowled tightly and restricted India to 296 in the first innings.

Australia got a healthy first-innings lead of 176, but Mohammed Siraj struck early and dismissed David Warner in the fourth over of Australia’s second innings. Soon Umesh Yadav dismissed Usman Khawaja for 13 runs. Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith added a valuable partnership of 66 runs for the third wicket and soon Ravindra Jadeja got the breakthrough when he picked up the first innings’ centurion. The all-rounder also dismissed Travis Head for 18 runs as Australia completed Day 3 at 123/4, with a lead of 296 runs. 

Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers from Day 3 of the World Test Championship (WTC) Final 2023 between India and Australia: 

600– Mitchell Starc completed 600 wickets in international cricket, which is the fourth most by an Australian bowler. Shane Warne has the most wickets for Australia across all formats (999), followed by Glenn McGrath (948) and Brett Lee (718). 

5020– Ajinkya Rahane completed 5000 runs in Test cricket and became the 13th Indian batter to achieve this feat. 

2 – The pair of Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur aggregated 109 runs, which is the second-highest seventh-wicket partnership by a visiting side at The Oval. Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri top the list with 110 runs which came against England in 1990.  

2 – Shardul Thakur scored 51 runs and became the second Indian after Ravindra Jadeja to achieve this feat while batting at 8 or below in ICC Knockouts.

3 – Shardul Thakur has smashed three half-centuries at The Oval, which is the most fifty-plus score by a visitor while batting at 8 or below, and he is followed by Eric Dalton with two half-centuries 

56.00 – Shardul Thakur has aggregated 168 runs at The Oval with an average of 56.00 as he has so far smashed three fifties. 

3 – Shardul has smashed three consecutive fifties at The Oval and equaled Don Bradman and Allan Border’s tally. 

Visiting batters with the most consecutive 50-plus scores at The Oval (Tests) 

3 – Sir Don Bradman (1930-1934) 

3 – Allan Border (1985-1989) 

3 – Shardul Thakur (2021-2023)

5 – The duo of Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur aggregated 109 runs, which is the fifth-highest partnership for the seventh wicket or below for India in England. The pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Manoj Prabhakar top the list with 160* runs which came against England in 1990.

Highest partnerships for seventh wicket or below for India in England 

160* – Sachin Tendulkar, Manoj Prabhakar vs ENG at Old Trafford in1990 

126 – VVS Laxman, Ajit Agarkar vs ENG at Lord’s in 2002 

111 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami vs ENG, at Trent Bridge in 2014 

110 – Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri vs ENG at The Oval in1990 

109 – Ajinkya Rahane, Shardul Thakur vs AUS at The Oval in 2023 

2 – Shardul Thakur has smashed three half-centuries, which is the joint second-most fifties at The Oval by visiting batter. He achieved this feat to level with Mushtaq Mohammad, Sachin Tendulkar, Gundappa Viswanath, Monty Noble. Allan Border tops the list with four fifties 

8 – Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Steve Smith for the eighth time in Test cricket and equaled the tally of Ravichandran Ashwin to become the second spinner to dismiss Steve Smith most times in Test cricket.