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Ashwin becomes fastest Indian to 150 Test wickets

R Ashwin posted his 13th five-wicket haul in Tests BCCI

29 Tests taken by R Ashwin to pick up 150 wickets - the least by any India bowler. Before Ashwin, Erapalli Prasanna and Anil Kumble were the quickest to this milestone, having got there in 34 Tests. Ashwin is also the joint second-fastest spinner to take 150 Test wickets. Clarrie Grimmett took one lesser Test to get to the landmark. South Africa's offspinner Hugh Tayfield and Saeed Ajmal also took 29 Tests. Overall, Ashwin has taken 150 wickets at an average of 27.84.

13 Five-wicket hauls by Ashwin in Tests in the subcontinent - the joint highest by any bowler in his first 20 Tests in Asia. Only Waqar Younis had as many five-fors in his first 20 Tests in the region. With one more innings in this Test still to go, Ashwin has taken 126 wickets in Asia - also the most by any bowler in his first 20 Tests in Asia - at an average of 22.36.

100 Wickets Ashwin has taken in only 16 Tests at home; this is the least matches taken by any bowler to complete 100 wickets in Tests in India. Before Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, who took his 100th wicket at home in his 19th Test, was the quickest. Ashwin is the tenth bowler to taken at least 100 wickets in India.

0 Number of wickets Ashwin had taken from his previous and only Test against South Africa before this one, which was in Johannesburg in 2013-14. Ashwin had sent down 42 overs without taking a wicket. He bowled 24 overs to get his first five-for against them in this innings.

5 Number of fifty-plus scores AB de Villiers has hit in eight innings on this tour including his 63 in this Test. De Villiers has accumulated 491 runs at 70.14 with three hundreds and two fifties. Overall, this was his sixth fifty-plus score in 23 innings in Tests against India. He has made 928 runs at 42.18.

6 Number of times before this India had taken a first-innings lead in a Test after making 201 or fewer batting first. The last such instance came against West Indies in Barbados in 2011 when India took a lead of 11 runs after making 201. There are only six other instances when India have managed to take the first-innings lead despite scoring fewer than the 201 they scored in this Test. The lowest such total for India is the 99 they had put up before dismissing New Zealand for 94 in Hamilton in 2002-03.

4 Instances when South Africa have made a first-innings total in Asia lower than the 184 they scored in this match. The last such instance came in 2008 when they made 170 in the first innings of the Dhaka Test.

4 Pairs by India openers before Shikhar Dhawan's in this match. The last India opener to get a pair was Virender Sehwag, against England at Edgbaston in 2011. In the last Test Dhawan played in Mohali, which was also his debut in 2013 against Australia, he had stroked 187 runs from just 174 deliveries.

14.10 Runs per wicket India's spinners averaged in South Africa's first innings, taking all the ten South Africa wickets to fall in the 54 overs they bowled. This is the best India's spinners have averaged in the first innings when they have taken all ten wickets of the opposition. Their previous best had come in the 1977 Bangalore Test, at an average of 15.20.

374 Cheteshwar Pujara's runs in his last three Tests against South Africa including the 63* in India's second innings. He has made at least one fifty-plus score in each of these three Tests. Overall, Pujara has made 405 runs against South Africa at 50.62. Also, Pujara's fifty in the second innings was his first fifty-plus score in the last nine occasions when he has batted in India's second innings. His last such fifty had come against England at Trent Bridge last year when he had made 55.

*0400 GMT: The stat on Ashwin's 100 Test wickets in India was added to the piece