STATS HIGHLIGHTS
Follow UsThe story of England’s batting this year remains the same. Bank on their skipper Joe Root to score most of the runs, while one batter supporting him and when he is dismissed collapse like house of cards. On day three, the script wasn’t different. The overnight pair of Dawid Malan and Root took on the bowlers and scored 123 runs at a run rate of 3.8 in the first session without being separated. Just as they were looking good, Cameron Green struck gold as he dismissed Root in the fourth over after the drinks break. A 138-run partnership for the third wicket was broken and the collapse started there on. Following his skipper, Malan wasted yet another start he got as he was dismissed for 80, six overs later. From 140/2 at the start of the second session, England were reduced to 164/5 by the drinks time. Ben Stokes, losing partners at the other end, went for the kill, but couldn’t last long as Green dismissed him for 34. England lost their last eight wickets for 86 runs. Hence, bundled out for 236 and handing a lead of 237 runs.
Australia, not en-forcing the follow-on, made a great start to their innings until a misunderstanding between Marcus Harris and David Warner ended a well compiled 41-run partnership with the latter dismissed for 13. Australia head into the fourth day with a lead of 282 runs. Here are some of the notable stats form the third day:
The best year for England’s third wicket partnership
Apart from the first innings of the first Test this series where they failed, England’s third wicket partnership of England has scored 300 runs with two century partnerships and in all three innings, it was between Malan and Root. 44.1 percent of the runs in this series has been contributed by a Malan and Root’s third wicket partnership. Not only this series, throughout the year, the third wicket partnership for England has been the best. In fact, best across the years of English cricket. The 1519 runs scored by the third wicket partnership of England is the most in a calendar year for them.
Root’s scintillating form continues
In the first Test, en-route to his 89 in the second innings, Root went past Michael Vaughn’s tally of 1481 runs in 2002 to register the most runs for an English batsman in a calendar year. In the second Test, he further added 62 runs and took his count to 1606 runs. By virtue of it, he went past Sachin Tendulkar’s 1562 runs in 2010 and Michael Clarke’s 1595 in 2012. He now sits behind Graeme Smith who scored 1656 runs in 2008 at fourth spot. To add more, he alongside Smith are the only two players to score over 1600 runs in a calendar year as captains. Root needs 183 runs in three innings to emulate Mohammad Yousuf’s record of 1788 in 2006.
Slow off the blocks
With a spinner operating at one end, generally, Stokes seizes every opportunity to score. However, in this innings, he took eternity to score his first run. With wickets falling at one end, Stokes looking to consolidate played 23 balls before getting off mark. Only once in his Test career has he played more balls to get things going and it was against New Zealand in 2019 in Mount Maunganui. In that innings, Stokes was off the mark on the 25th ball of his innings.
Starc and his love for pink ball Tests
Before the start of this match, Mitchell Starc with 46 wickets in day/night Test was already the leader of the attack. In the first innings, by picking up four wickets, he further extended his count to 50. On the back of it, he became the first bowler to achieve the milestone in day/night Tests. Starc has picked up those 50 wickets at a bowling average of 18.1 and strike rate of 44.9. The next best bowlers in the list, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, tied with 32 are 18 wickets behind him.
Anderson’s ton of not-outs
Batting at number 11 for most of his career, Anderson set a unique record with the bat. After batting 234 innings, Anderson brought up a century in the not-out section. He became the first ever batsman to remain not-out in 100 innings. It is obvious that this list in Tests, features mostly number 11 or 10 batsman. Courtney Walsh is second in the list with 61 not-outs in 185 innings.
Australia’s first 20+ opening PS in Ashes since 2018
Even though Australia have had the advantage in the last few Ashes Tests, the main area of concern still remains to be their opening partnership. In the second innings, they were looking good, but a mishap drew curtains to their 41-run stand. Interestingly, this was the first 20+ opening stand after 14 innings for Australia in Ashes since 2018. Prior to today, Cameron Bancroft and Warner shared a 122-run and 51-run stand in the 2017 boxing day Test in Melbourne.
