As the dust settles on England’s victory over Australia in the Ashes First Test, cricket statistician Mohandas Menon analyses the match by numbers, with Joe Root, Chris Rogers and Mitchell Johnson all achieving impressive feats.
*Sophia Gardens at Cardiff was hosting only its third Test match since July 2009. This Test is the second Ashes Test to be played here. England has now won two of its three Tests here, with one drawn.
*The Cardiff Test also provided only the second instance of seven or more left-handers in the England playing XI (Adam Lyth, Alastair Cook, Gary Ballance, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad & Jimmy Anderson) in an Ashes Test match. The Sydney Test in January 2014 had eight England left-handers (Alastair Cook, Mark Carberry, Gary Ballance, Ben Stokes, Scott Borthwick, Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson & Boyd Rankin)
*Ian Bell in his last eight innings has been dismissed on “one” of four occasions and on zeros twice. His scores read: 1, 0, 0, 1, 29, 12, 1, 1. However he managed to make a crucial 60 in the second innings in this Test match.
*Joe Root (134) became the second Englishman to register two Ashes centuries before the age of 25 years. He had earlier made a 180 at Lord’s in July 2013. He emulates Len Hutton, who managed to make 100 and 364 during the same series in 1938. If Root can manage another century in this series he can surpass the tally of Hutton.
*Meanwhile, the most number of Test 100s for England before the age of 25 is by Alastair Cook (9), followed by Root (7) and Ian Botham (6). The overall record is 16 by Sachin Tendulkar.
*Incidentally Root’s second Ashes century and his seventh overall, was his fastest of his career. It came in just 118 balls. His previous fastest was the 125 ball century against West Indies in April this year at Grenada.
*For the 21st time in his Test career Mitchell Johnson (0/111) conceded over 100 runs in an innings. Among Australians only Shane Warne has conceded 100+ most times – 40. (Clarrie Grimmett also did so 21 times).
*Incidentally this was the only second time Johnson went wicket-less (0/111 in 25 overs) after conceding over 100 runs in an innings. The other occasion also came in an Ashes Test at Brisbane in November in 2010. He had then conceded 104 runs in 27 overs.
England produce an inspired bowling display to win the 1st #Ashes Test by 169 runs pic.twitter.com/Tnwtd95c5L
— ICC (@ICC) July 11, 2015
*Chris Rogers became the first Australian and the fifth batsman overall in Tests to manage 50+ scores in seven consecutive innings. The others being: West Indian Everton Weekes (in February 1949), Zimbabwean Andy Flower (in April 2001), West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul (in December 2007) and Kumar Sangakkara (in June 2014).
*Rogers whose sequence began mid-December with scores of 55, 55, 57, 69, 95, 56, 95 is now the only batsman to achieve this feat while opening the batting and also the only one without managing a three figure score.
*Rogers’ 95 at the age of 37 years, 312 days makes him the only second oldest Aussie to be dismissed in the 90s in Tests after Alick Bannerman (37 years, 318 days) who made 91 at Sydney way back in February 1892.
*A top edged six by Chris Rogers was his first of Test career after 20 Tests, 39 inns, 1610 runs & 3271 balls.
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*First time in the 138 years of Test cricket batsmen batting at numbers 3, 4, 5 & 6 were all dismissed in their 30s: Steven Smith (33), Michael Clarke (38), Adam Voges (31) and Shane Watson (30)
*Also for the first in an Ashes Test match numbers 4 and 5 made identical 50+ scores in the same innings: 60 by Ian Bell (#4) and Joe Root (#5) in England’s second innings.
*Shane Watson has now been dismissed lbw in Tests on 29 occasions in just 106 innings. Now among Australians only Ricky Ponting (47 in 258 innings), Mark Waugh (32 in 192), Mark Taylor (30 in 173) and Shane Warne (30 in 182) have been dismissed leg before more often than Watson in Tests.
“We were outplayed in every facet of the game” – Michael Clarke #Ashes pic.twitter.com/kBS6GUMAuz
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) July 11, 2015
*Since his debut in January 2005, no Australian has been dismissed so often leg before than Watson in Tests. Next best is Ricky Ponting with 26 such dismissals. For the record, during this period England’s Alastair Cook has been dismissed most times – 39.
*Incidentally, Watson has now been dismissed LBW in the both innings of a Test match on five occasions, thus equaling Mark Taylor, Mark Waugh, Michael Slater and Shane Warne. The overall record in Tests is 12 by Sachin Tendulkar.
*Mitchell Johnson’s 77 was his 12th score of 50+ in Tests. Among Australia lower-order batsman (#8 to #11) he now has most 50+ scores. He surpassed Shane Warne’s 11 scores of 50+ from #8 onwards. However Johnson is still some distance away from the overall Test record of 23 by Kiwi Daniel Vettori.
*Meanwhile, Johnson’s 77 is also the second highest by an Aussie lower-order batsman (#8 and below) in the fourth innings of a Test match. He fell short of the 91 by Rod Marsh at Manchester in June 1972.
*The stand of 72 runs between Johnson and Mitchell Starc just failed to go past Australia’s best for the 8th wicket in the fourth innings of a Test match. The highest still remains as the 76 between Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne at Manchester in August 2005.
*This was Australia’s 11th Test defeat inside four days since January of 2010. They have now lost 4 such Tests to England, 3 to South Africa, 2 to India and one each to Pakistan and New Zealand.
*Since August 2005 in the last 15 Ashes Tests at home, England have won eight and have lost just one (at Leeds in 2009)
