• Ravichandran Ashwin, playing in his 29th Test match, picked up the 150th wicket of his career when he claimed Imran Tahir’s wicket on Friday. 

• He now becomes the 13th Indian bowler to reach this landmark in Tests. He is also the 9th Indian spinner and the 4th off-spinner, after Harbhajan Singh, Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivas Venkataraghavan to do so in Tests.

• By doing so in his 29th Test match, Ashiwn is now the joint fourth fastest in Test cricket history to do so in least number of matches. Only pacemen  Sydney Barnes (England)  in his 24th Test, Waqar Younis (Pakistan) in his 27th Test and leg spinner Clarrie Grimmett (Australia) in 28 Tests have done it faster than Ashwin. 

• It was the 13th time in his career that Ashwin had a five-wicket haul. Only Anil Kumble (35), Harbhajan (25), Kapil Dev (23), Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (16) and Bishan Singh Bedi (14) have claimed more five-wicket hauls in Tests for India.

• This was Ashwin’s third five-wicket haul while opening (at No.1) the bowling for India. Previously, he had claimed 5/42 vs Sri Lanka in Colombo (in August 2015) and 5/95 vs Australia in Chennai (in February 2013) while opening the bowling.

• Ashwin’s final wicket was also his 100th on Indian soil, which has come in just 16 Tests, the quickest by any Indian bowler. Incidentally, he is the 10th Indian spinner to claim 100-plus wickets at home.

• Shikhar Dhawan who made his Test debut in Mohali in March 2013 with a 187 against Australia has had the ignominy of bagging a pair in his next Test at the same venue.

• He now becomes the only fifth Indian opener to register a pair in a Test match after Pankaj Roy in 1952, Farokh Engineer in 1975, Wasim Jaffer 2007 and Virender Sehwag in 2011. Engineer is the only one to do so at home (at Wankhede, Mumbai).

• Simon Harmer became the first South African spinner in 15 years to open the bowling in a Test match. The last one to do so was left-arm chinaman bowler Paul Adams, against England, in Cape Town, in January 2000. 

Mohandas Menon