After England's resounding win over Australia in the third Ashes Test of the series, cricket statistician Mohandas Menon takes us through the highlights from Birmingham that made Ashes history.
** Ben Stokes was the only player in the England XI born in a foreign country – Christchurch, New Zealand. It means that England have gone 11 years, 7 months, 27 days and 146 Test matches since selecting an XI comprised entirely of players born in England. The last time that happened was in the drawn Galle Test with Sri Lanka in December 2003.
** This was the first time since April 2004, spanning 139 Tests, that an England XI featured no players born in southern Africa. The last occasion being the St John’s Test (in which Brian Lara made 400*) against the West Indies.
** Chris Rogers (52) registered his ninth 50+ score in his last 11 innings since the Brisbane Test against India on Dec 17, 2014. His scores: 55, 55; 57, 69; 95, 56; 95, 10; 173, 49*; 52, (made 6 in the second innings). Since then the Aussie opener has struck 772 runs at an average of 70.18.
** Rogers also registered his 9th score of 50+ after the age of 35, with only Don Bradman (13), Allan Border (12), Lindsay Hassett and Steve Waugh (11 each) – making more scores for Australia as over-35s.
** The last time Steve Smith (7) was dismissed in single figures was a duck against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi on 1 Nov 2014. Since then he has played 16 innings, with a lowest dismissal of 14 runs.
** Jimmy Anderson, wicket-less (33-4-137-0) in the previous Test at Lord's, made amends by claiming 6-47, which is the fourth top Test performance of his career and best ever bowling performance in an Ashes Test. His previous best against Australia was the 5-73 at Trent Bridge in July 2013.
** It was Anderson's 18th five-plus wicket haul of his Test career, meaning only Ian Botham (27) and Sydney Barnes (24) have more England five-fors in Tests. Anderson surpassed Fred Trueman, Derek Underwood and Graeme Swann, who have all claimed 17 five-plus wicket hauls.
** The last time Australia (136 in 36.4 overs) were dismissed on the opening day of an Ashes Test match was at the MCG in December 2010, when they were all-out for 98 in 42.5 overs. England won that Test by an innings and 157 runs.
** The 13 wickets that fell on the first day (10 Australian, 3 English) equalled the most to fall on the opening day of any of the 48 Test matches at Edgbaston since the first Test was played there in 1902. The same number of wickets fell at this ground on the first day’s play on three other occasions: in 1958 (Eng 10, NZ 3), 1997 (Aus 10, Eng 3) and 2006 (Sri Lanka 10, Eng 3).
** Mitchell Johnson, who claimed his 300th Test wicket (Jonny Bairstow), soon claimed his 301st (Ben Stokes), two balls later as he became the 28th bowler in Test cricket history to capture 300 or more wickets. The list includes five Australians, four each of Englishmen, South Africans, West Indians and Indians, three Pakistanis and two Kiwis and Sri Lankans.
** Johnson’s 300th wicket came in his 69th Test match, thirteen shy of Former Australian quick Dennis Lillee who reached his landmark in his 56th Test in November 1981. Lillee is the quickest to reach 300 wickets in Test cricket history. Now only Shane Warne (708), Glenn McGrath (563), Dennis Lillee (355) and Brett Lee (310) have claimed more wickets than Johnson (301) for Australia.
** Johnson also became the 12th player in Test cricket to do the double of scoring 2,000 runs and taking 300 wickets. Johnson is the third quickest in Tests to achieve this, only Kiwi Richard Hadlee (61 Tests) and Pakistani Imran Khan (68) doing so quicker.
** David Warner’s second innings knock of 77 in 62 balls, where he reached his fifty in 35 deliveries, equaled fellow Aussie Graham Yallop’s record for the fastest fifty in Ashes history. Yallop, made his 35-ball fifty at Manchester in the 1981 series during his 114 run innings which came in just 125 balls.
** James Anderson (6/47) and Steven Finn (6/79) claiming six wickets in each innings of the Test was only the fourth instance in Ashes history where two English bowlers have managed to do this. The last time this happened was at Leeds in July 1981 when both Ian Botham (6/95) and Bob Willis (8/43) ran through the Australians.
** Stuart Broad moved to 299 wickets at Edgbaston, taking him past Derek Underwood's tally of 297 to move into the fifth place on England's all-time list of leading Test wicket-takers. Only James Anderson (413), Ian Botham (383), Bob Willis (325) and Fred Trueman (307) have more wickets than Broad in Tests.
** Having aggregated just 128 runs in his previous 12 innings, Ian Bell registered two 50+ scores in the same Test match (53 & 65*) for seventh time in his career. It was the third time he’s done so against Australia after Old Trafford (59 & 65) in 2005 and Lord’s (109 & 74) in 2013.
** The last occasion England won a Test match on the third day was against India at The Oval on August 17, 2014 (won by innings & 244 runs), while for Australia their last Test defeat in three days came against India at Delhi on March 24, 2013 (lost by 6 wickets)
** The last time England won an Ashes match inside three days was at the MCG on December 29, 1998, when they won by 12 runs on the fourth day, after the opening day was washed out.
** This win was England’s 25th in 48 Tests at this venue (lost eight) and their sixth victory against Australia in the 14 Tests here, having lost just three.
