Another spin-dominant venue threatens century-less series

1987 The last time a visiting team defeated India at the Feroz Shah Kotla - West Indies by five wickets . Since then, India have won nine of the 10 Tests held here. India's nine wins are the most by any team at a particular venue without losing any Test.

0 Tests in Delhi where the team winning the toss has elected not to bat. In all the 32 matches played here, the side winning the toss has chosen to bat first, but only on five ocassions has the team winning the toss ended up winning the match as well.

0 Tests South Africa have played at this venue in their previous five tours to India. In fact, South Africa have played just one International match at this venue - against West Indies in the 2011 World Cup . In that game, AB de Villiers made an unbeaten 107 off 105 balls to lead South Africa's successful chase.

57.4 Spinners' strike rate at this venue since 1999, the second best among all venues which have hosted at least five Tests during this period.

44.08 Bowling average of fast bowlers at this venue, the second worst since 2000 among all grounds that have hosted at least five Tests.

31 Number of balls the spinners have taken per wicket in the first three matches of this series so far. This series ranks second among all series of three or more matches in terms of strike rate of spinners.

40.87 Runs per wicket in the fourth innings of Tests in Delhi, the second best among all venues that have hosted five or more Tests. Incidentally, on the 17 occasions of teams chasing the target in fourth innings here, only two have resulted in a loss, with the chasing team successfully reaching their target 11 times. Four such matches have resulted in draws. Among all venues where a target has been chased down at least 15 times, the Kotla ranks second in terms of losses for the chasing teams. The Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore tops this list; only once has a team lost while chasing there in the fourth innings, out of 21 such instances.

0 Number of second-innings hundreds (the match's third or fourth innings) scored at the Kotla since the 1987 Test against West Indies; Sadagoppan Ramesh's 96 against Pakistan in 1999 is the highest score. Since then, there have been only two other venues where no centuries have been scored by batsmen in their team's second innings - Wakhede Stadium in Mumbai, and MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong.

50 Wickets taken by Ishant Sharma in first-class matches at this venue, the most by any player in the last ten years at Kotla. Ishant has played 12 first-class matches at the Kotla and taken these wickets at an average of 18.38. His bowling average is the best by any bowler who has played more than five first-class matches here. Ishant took 6 for 36 for Delhi against Vidarbha when he bowled at this venue for the first time this Ranji Trophy season. Also, this has been by far the most productive venue for him in his first-class career. At no other venue has Ishant picked up even 20 wickets; his 16 wickets at the Roshanara Club Ground, also in Delhi, rank second on the list.

2 Wickets taken by India's fast bowlers in this series. If the hosts' spinners don't allow the seamers to take any wickets in the Delhi Test, it will be the least number of wickets taken by a team's fast bowlers in a series of four or more matches. In the 1972-73 series against England, India's fast bowlers managed to pick up just three wickets.

75 Number of wickets that have fallen to spinners in the first three matches of this series - 34 in the first Test, eight in the second (only one complete innings) and 33 in the third. If the spinners take another 35 wickets in this Test in Delhi, this will be the series with most wickets by spinners. The five-match series between India and England in 1972-73 has the highest number of wickets falling to spinners in any series, with 109. The record in a series of four or fewer Tests is also in India, when 92 wickets were taken by spinners during the 2012-13 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

2006 The last time South Africa lost more than two matches in any Test series. They were whitewashed 3-0 by Australia in their own backyard.

0 Centuries by batsmen in the first three matches of this series; AB de Villiers' 85 in Bangalore is the highest score so far. There has never been a Test series of four or more matches with no centuries. At least two centuries have been scored in every Test series with four or matches. Incidentally, there were no centuries in the last Test in Delhi, against Australia in 2013.

215 Highest innings total of the series so far. The the lowest high score of team in a series of four or more Tests is 320, during England's tour of Australia in 1881-82. The total of 215 in this series is the lowest among all series of three or more matches as well.