Ravichandran Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha and a unique feat

Wicketkeepers and strike bowlers make an awesome pair. The combination of Marsh and Lillee or Gilchrist and Warne, and other such pairs have done wonders and registered successful partnerships in Test cricket. However, this was for a different cause.

Wicketkeepers and strike bowlers make an awesome pair. The combination of Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee or Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne, and other such pairs have done wonders and registered successful partnerships in Test cricket. When your wicketkeeper and strike bowler often headlines, it often referred to their brilliance that has helps teams claim wickets.

However, on this instance, India’s ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha combined for different reasons. One up in the series, going into the third Test against West Indies at St Lucia, India had a torrid first two sessions of Day One. India had lost half their side for 126.

Ashwin and Saha weaved in a 213-run stand for the sixth wicket to harbour India to safety. In process, both of them brought up their hundreds. Ashwin became only the fourth cricketer after Richie Benaud, Tony Greig and Ian Botham to register two hundreds and two fifers in a series. The duo went on to register the highest sixth-wicket partnership for India against West Indies,  they also registered India’s second-highest sixth-wicket partnership away from home and this stand is only behind the 222-run stand between Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin in Cape Town in 1996-97. READ MORE: Ravichandran Ashwin scripts history; becomes the first Indian cricketer to have achieved this feat

However, the records tally did not end here, you will be surprised to know that this was the first instance of India’s No. 6 and No. 7 both scoring hundreds in the same innings of a Test. ALSO READ: Saha overcomes ghosts of past

Also, only three Indian wicketkeepers have scored hundreds outside Asia. No, MS Dhoni does not feature in the list. In fact, he has no international hundred outside Asia. Co-incidentally, all the three outside Asia hundreds have come in West Indies. Vijay Manjrekar scored one at Kingston in 1952-53, Ajay Ratra in 2002 and now Saha.