Melbourne, Dec 27: Day 2 of the Boxing Day Test began with a flurry of Australian wickets but was characterised by a strong Indian batting display. While Virender Sehwag completed 8000 Test runs, Rahul Dravid played another gritty knock, still standing on 68 at stumps. Sachin Tendulkar, meanwhile, scored his 64th Test fifty; the Dravid-Tendulkar pair now tops the list of Test partnerships in terms of run-aggregates. Take a look at the numbers that matter from an eventful day at the MCG.

• Zaheer Khan completed 50 Test wickets against Australia with the wicket of Peter Siddle. He became the seventh Indian to do so after Anil Kumble (111), Harbhajan Singh (90), Kapil Dev (79), Erapally Prasanna (57), Bishan Bedi (56) and Shivlal Yadav (55).

• Australia’s total of 333 is their second-lowest total against India at MCG in the first innings of a Test match. The lowest remains 262 in a drawn game in 1985-‘86.

• Virender Sehwag, on 20, completed 8,000 runs in Test cricket. He became the fifth Indian and 23rd batsmen in Test history to do so.

• Sehwag has taken 160 innings to reach the 8,000-run landmark. Only four batsmen have taken fewer innings to complete 8,000 runs. They are: Kumar Sangakkara (152), Sachin Tendulkar (154), Garry Sobers (157) and Rahul Dravid (158).

• Rahul Dravid, on 28, completed 2,000 runs against Australia. He became only the third Indian batsman to do so after Sachin Tendulkar (3,206) and VVS Laxman (2,279).

• Coincidentally, Dravid also completed 1,000 runs against Australia in Australia on the same score (28), thus joining two other Indians – Tendulkar (1577) and Laxman (1,081) – who have also accomplish this feat.

• By the end of Day 2, Dravid has taken his tally of runs in away Tests to 816 in the calendar year 2011. There have been only five better performances by an Indian batsman in a calendar year in away Tests. Take a look:

Most runs by Indian batsmen in a calendar year

(in away Tests)

• Rahul Dravid has now scored at least a fifty in each of his last five consecutive Tests. He had made 146* & 13 v England at The Oval, 54 & 31 at Delhi; 119 at Kolkata; and 82 & 33 at Mumbai – all against West Indies.

• This is the fourth time that Dravid has scored at least a fifty in five consecutive Tests. The other such occasions for him were in 2002 (between July and October) – fifties in five consecutive Tests; in 2006 (between March and July) – fifties in seven consecutive Tests, and in 2008/’09 (between December 2008 and December 2009) – fifties in seven consecutive Tests.

• Dravid now shares Sunil Gavaskar’s Indian record for most streaks of fifties in five consecutive Tests.

• Sachin Tendulkar extended his record for most sixes against Australia when he upper cut Peter Siddle the first ball after tea. He has now hit 23 sixes against Australia. Ian Botham and Brian Lara are joint second with 21 sixes.

• Sachin Tendulkar (73) made his 64th Test fifty, the world record for scoring most fifties in a Test career. He went ahead of Australia’s Allan Border’s tally of 63 (Rahul Dravid now also has 63 fifties against his name).

• Tendulkar has now played 18 innings since scoring his 99th international hundred (111 v South Africa in World Cup at Nagpur on March 12). He has aggregated 722 runs at an average of 40.11 with seven fifties.

• Dravid and Tendulkar today became the first pair to be involved in 20 century partnerships in Test cricket. They are also the most successful pair in Test cricket in terms of run-aggregates.

Details of the Top 5 pairs of batsmen in Tests below: