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Kumble's manor
Wisden CricInfo staff - December 17, 2001
The M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore has hosted 13 Tests. India have won four, lost four and drawn five. The victories came against England (1976-77), New Zealand (1988-89 and 1995-96) and Sri Lanka (1993-94), while they lost to West Indies (1974-75), Pakistan (1986-87), Australia (1997-98) and South Africa (1999-00).
The five draws at this venue came in successive matches between 1978-79 and 1983-84. Since India's draw against Pakistan in September 1983, all six Tests here have produced results. India have won three of those, but their recent form is not so impressive; they lost the last two Tests – to Australia by eight wickets, and South Africa by an innings and 71 runs.
In 12 out of the 13 Tests here, the captain winning the toss has opted to bat, but only on four occasions has he emerged victorious. The sole instance of a captain inserting the opposition was when the Nawab of Pataudi put Clive Lloyd's West Indians in in 1974-75. India lost by 267 runs.
The last three Tests have been won by the team which lost the toss and batted second. India have been on the receiving end twice, against Australia and South Africa, while they beat New Zealand by eight wickets in 1995-96.
The average innings scores (runs per 10 wickets) in the last six Tests are all under 300: 295 (1st innings), 279 (2nd), 246 (3rd) and 297 (4th).
Spin has accounted for the bulk of the wickets in these six matches – 124 out of 188, at an average of 27.74. However, the 64 wickets taken by the seamers have come at the slightly lower cost of 26.72. Of the 102 wickets taken by Indian bowlers, 77 have gone to the spinners (average 24.51) and 25 to the seamers (23.16).
Anil Kumble has had wonderful success on this, his home ground. In four Tests, he has taken 28 wickets at 19.21, with three five-fors and a best of 6 for 98. He took his 100th wicket here, in his 21st Test, when he dismissed Martin Crowe in 1995-96.
Expect more celebrations when Kumble takes the one wicket he needs to join the 300 club. He will be the second Indian after Kapil Dev - and the first Indian spinner - to reach this landmark.
Sachin Tendulkar has played four Tests at Bangalore and scored 349 runs at 58.17. More than half these runs came in one innings – 177 against Australia in a losing cause in 1997-98. This remains the highest individual score at Bangalore.
England have played twice on this ground. In 1976-77, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Bishan Bedi spun India to a 140-run victory over Tony Greig's team, while Sunil Gavaskar made the 1981-82 Test his own with a monumental 172 in a high-scoring draw against Keith Fletcher's team.
India's win in 1976-77 was marked by a startling performance from the debutant Yajurvindra Singh, who snapped up everything at bat-pad and equalled the world record for most catches in an innings (five) and a match (seven) by a non-wicketkeeper. Yajurvindra, better known as Sunny, is now managing director of Wisden Online India.
Richard Hadlee took his 374th wicket here, dismissing Arun Lal in the first innings in the 1988-89 series, to take over from Ian Botham as Test cricket's highest wicket-taker. It was here too that Kapil took his 431st wicket (against Sri Lanka in 1993-94) to equal Hadlee's world record.
S Rajesh is a sub-editor at Wisden.com India.
© Wisden CricInfo Ltd
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