Australia following-on atlast

Australia were made to follow on for the first time in 17 years as England dismissed the visitors for a paltry 218 on the third day of fourth Ashes Test at Trent Bridge. The last time they had suffered such fate was on 19th September 1988 at Karachi against Pakistan. Allan border was leading the side at that time and since then Border(61), Mark Taylor (50), Steve Waugh (57), Adam Gilchrist (6) and Ricky Ponting (16) never led a side that was asked to bat again by the opposition captain until Michael Vaughn asked Ponting (in his 17th match as captain of Australia) yesterday morning. Interestingly it was only for the 39th time that Australia have been followed on in the last 128 years and for the 18th time in last 50 years. For readers interest the accompanying table presents the list of follow on enforced on Australia in the last 50 years.Click to see the table

Most runs in a day's play

New Zealand amassed 452 for 9 against Zimbabwe on the first day of the recently concluded Harare Test. It was the fifth highest number of runs scored by a side on the first day of a Test match and the ninth most by a side in any day’s play. Interestingly, the world record of most runs for both sides in a day is 588 (for the loss of 6 wickets) on the 2nd day of the Old Trafford Test between England and India in 1936 [Scores: England 398-6; India 190-0]. For reader’s interest the accompanying tables have the complete details.Click to see the table