Statistical highlights of the first day's play in the first Test between India and Australia in Melbourne on Wednesday.
# Sourav Ganguly became the seventh Indian player to appear in 100 Tests or more, joining Sachin Tendulkar (143), Kapil Dev (131), Sunil Gavaskar (125), Anil Kumble (122), Dilip Vengsarkar (116) and Rahul Dravid (116).
# India became the second nation in Test annals to achieve the feat of featuring four players (Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly) with 100 or more appearances in the same Test squad.
# The Australian team was the first to achieve the distinction during the 2006-07 Ashes series against England when Justin Langer, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Ricky Ponting appeared together.
# Matthew Hayden (124 off 183 balls) registered his 28th hundred, fourth against India. Only Ricky Ponting (33), Steve Waugh (32) and Don Bradman (29) have recorded more hundreds than Hayden for Australia.
# Hayden's 124 is his sixth hundred at MCG - the last three in successive innings - 137 vs. South Africa in 2005-06; 153 vs. England in 2006-07 and 124 vs. India in 2007-08.
# Hayden recorded his second successive hundred against India at the MCG. In the 2003-04 Melbourne Test, he scored 136 and 53 not out.
# Only Bradman has registered more hundreds (9) than Hayden (6) at the MCG.
# Hayden, during the course of his innings, became the sixth batsman to amass 1,000 runs or more at the MCG. Bradman (1671 in 11 Tests) holds the record for most runs at this venue.
# Rahul Dravid, with Hayden's catch, overtook Mark Taylor's tally of 157, moving into the fourth place in the list of all time leading fielders. His tally of 159 catches is exceeded only by Mark Waugh (181), Brian Lara (164) and Stephen Fleming (161).
# Phil Jaques (66) registered his fifth 50-plus score in succession.
# The 135-run stand between Hayden and Jaques is Australia's second best for the first wicket against India at Melbourne, next only to the 191 between Bobby Simpson and Bill Lawry in 1967-68. The aforesaid partnership is Australia's first century partnership in 32 innings.
# Anil Kumble became the third Indian bowler to claim five wickets in an innings twice at Melbourne, joining Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Kapil Dev.
# Kumble became the fourth bowler to capture 10 five-wicket hauls or more (in 15 Tests) against Australia, joining Richard Hadlee (NZ) - 14 in 23 Tests; Sydney Barnes (England) - 12 in 20 Tests and Tom Richardson (Eng) 11 in 14 Tests.
# Kumble has now claimed 35 five-wicket hauls and only Muttiah Muralitharan (62), Shane Warne (37) and Richard Hadlee (36) have claimed more five-wicket hauls than Kumble.
# Kumble became the third Indian captain to bag five wickets in an innings against Australia, joining Bishan Singh Bedi (thrice during the 1977-78 series - twice at Perth and once at Brisbane) and Kapil Dev (Adelaide, 1985-86).
