Barbados, June 28: Whoever said Test cricket was a slow format ought to follow the proceedings at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown very closely. On a track laden with moisture, the inevitable dominance of the quick bowlers and scuttling of bewildered batsmen made for an entertaining first day’s play. With wickets falling alarmingly, every run counted: VVS Laxman stood firm for India in the midst of a collapse while Suresh Raina played another great supporting knock to take the visitors to a score of some respectability. Take a look at the numbers that matter from a day where the bowlers came out on top.

· This was India’s 450th Test match. India became the fourth team after England (911), Australia (730) and West Indies (472) to play 450 Test matches.

· Rahul Dravid was playing his 200th innings at No. 3. He became the second batsman to play 200 innings at a particular position in Test cricket. Sachin Tendulkar has played 237 innings at No. 4.

· Dravid was also playing his 152nd Test, which puts him at par with Australia’s Ricky Ponting. Now only three players - Sachin Tendulkar (177), Steve Waugh (168) and Allan Border (156) - have played more Tests than Dravid.

· VVS Laxman became the fourth Indian after Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar and 22nd batsman overall to complete 8,000 runs in Test cricket.

Indian batsmen with 8,000 runs in Test cricket

· Laxman also completed 1,000 runs in the Caribbean, joining Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar and Polly Umrigar.

Indian batsmen with 1,000 runs in the Caribbean

· Laxman also became the eighth batsman to score 50 fifties in Test cricket after Allan Border (63), Rahul Dravid (59), Sachin Tendulkar (59), Ricky Ponting (56), S Chanderpaul (55), Jacques Kallis (54) and Steve Waugh (50).

· The 117-run partnership between Laxman and Raina is India’s best for the fifth wicket at Bridgetown. The pair surpassed the previous record stand of 81 between Mohinder Amarnath and Ravi Shastri in 1982-83.

· Carlton Baugh effected his second stumping in Test cricket when he dismissed Praveen Kumar off the bowling of Bishoo. Interestingly, his only other such dismissal had come more than eight years ago when he dismissed Australia’s Ricky Ponting (206) off Marlon Samuels at Port-of-Spain in 2003.

· After making 0 & 16 in the Kingston Test, Dhoni failed once again with the bat. Dhoni’s figures outside the sub-continent don’t do any justice to his immense potential. He averages less than 30 outside the subcontinent (as against nearly 46 in the subcontinent) and only 18.60 in the Caribbean.

Dhoni in Test cricket

· Dhoni, with the dismissal of Lendl Simmons, surpassed Kiran More’s tally of 21 dismissals against West Indies. Now only Syed Kirmani – with 36 dismissals – is ahead of Dhoni.