Seventy-four, in the two hundredth

The Mumbai card of November 2013 is Test number 2102, the second of two. India chose to field, bowled West Indies out for 182 by tea on the first day, made 495, and bowled them out for 187. The result line reads India won by an innings and 126 runs, on the third day of five. For one of the eleven Indian names on it, it was the two hundredth card of a career and the last.

One hundred and eighty-two

Chris Gayle was caught by Rohit Sharma off Mohammed Shami for 11 at 25. Kieran Powell made 48 and Darren Bravo 29, and West Indies were 93 for two at lunch. Then 140 for four, 148 for five, and three wickets at 162: Narsingh Deonarine, Daren Sammy and Shane Shillingford in the space of nine balls. Ojha took five for 40 from 11.2 overs, Ravichandran Ashwin three for 45. All out in 55.2 overs.

Full scorecard: India v West Indies, 2nd Test, Mumbai, 14–16 November 2013 →

The last innings

Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan put on 77 and were out two balls apart, both to Shillingford. Tendulkar came in with the score 77 for two in the fourteenth over and was 38 not out at the close, Cheteshwar Pujara 34, India 157 for two.

On the second morning the match-flow lines have him to 50 off 91 balls with nine fours, the third-wicket stand to 100 in 156 balls, and India 216 for two at drinks with Tendulkar 71. Five runs later he was caught by Sammy off Deonarine for 74, from 118 balls in 150 minutes, twelve fours, in the 48th over. The third wicket fell at 221.

Pujara went on to 113 from 167 balls and was caught and bowled by Shillingford at 354. Virat Kohli made 57. Sharma came in at 354 for five and was 111 not out when the innings ended, from 127 balls with eleven fours and three sixes. The last wicket put on 80, Shami contributing 11 of them from 29 balls in 83 minutes. India 495 all out in 108 overs. Shillingford bowled 43 of them and took five for 179.

Two overs

West Indies were 43 for three at the close of the second day, 270 behind. On the third morning Gayle made 35 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul 41, Denesh Ramdin 53 not out from 68 balls. Ojha took five for 49 from 18 overs, Ashwin four for 89. Between them the two spinners bowled 35 of the 47 overs.

The bowling table has a fifth name. Sachin Tendulkar, two overs, no maidens, eight runs, no wicket. The card has him bowling in the last innings of his last Test, and it has that entry immediately below Ojha’s five for 49.

Ten for 89, and a second hundred

Ojha is the player of the match, five for 40 and five for 49. The tour page on Wikipedia calls it his first ten-wicket haul in Tests. Sharma is the player of the series with 288 runs from two matches: 177 on debut at Kolkata the week before, then this 111 not out. The card’s series line reads India won the 2-match series 2-0.

The umpires were Nigel Llong and Richard Kettleborough, the referee Andy Pycroft. West Indies chose Tino Best as a nightwatchman at three in the second innings, and he was leg before to Ojha for 9. Nothing in the card’s tables marks the match as different from any other three-day innings win.

What the card cannot say

Two hundred Tests, 15,921 runs, 51 hundreds, an average of 53.78, and the Bharat Ratna announced after the match: all of that is Wikipedia’s, not the card’s. The card’s own coverage headline is Tendulkar’s farewell. What the card holds is an innings of 74 that ended at 221 for three, and a bowling line of two overs for eight that nobody needed.

What the card holds

A 182 all out by tea on the first day. A 74 from 118 balls, ended by the sixth bowler used and a catch by the captain. A 113, a 111 not out and a last-wicket stand of 80. Five for 40 and five for 49 from the same left-arm spinner. Two overs for eight from the man the match was about. And a result line that says innings and 126, on the third day.

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No. 22 in Unrepeatable, a series of 22.

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