Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Consecutive fifties and highest batting average as captain

* With his second fifty-plus score of the match, Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq created a new world record of most consecutive fifties by a batsman against a particular country. A run-stretch from the Old Trafford Test in 2001, Inzi has now gone nine successive innings (114, 85, 53, 72, 109, 100*, 97, 69, 56*) against England with atleast a half-century in each one of them. This broke the 22-year old record of eight fifties on trot by West Indian Clive Lloyd against England from June 1980 to June 1984. Interestingly, all of Lloyd’s scores were as captain while Inzamam’s seven of the nine scores were registered while he was leading the Pakistan side. So, Lloyd still holds the record of most consecutive fifty-plus scores by a captain against England. See Tables 1 & 2.

* Salman Butt became only the fourth Pakistani batsman for the fifth time to be dismissed on the very first ball of an innings. See Table 3.

* Pakistan have now gone 10 Tests without losing one. Their last defeat was against West Indies at Bridgetown in May 2005 when they were drubbed by 276 runs. Since then they have played 10 Tests won 5, drew 5. See Table 4.

* At the end of the Lord’s Test, Inzamam now has a Test batting average of 61.72 as captain. Among captains who have scored atleast 1000 or more in Test cricket this is now the third best among all after Don Bradman’s incredible 101.52 and Ricky Ponting’s 63.21. Against England as captain (with 500 runs or more), Inzi betters Bradman with an average of 111.2. See Tables 5 & 6.

* Inzamam's twin scores of fifty plus in the Lord's Test makes him only the second man after Alan Border to have 11 or more twin-fifties in a match. Border had scored fifty in both innings of the match on 13 occasions while Inzi has now registered 11 such instances. See Table 7.

Inisde Edge

Monday, July 17, 2006

Yousuf only the second player to score back-to back double tons against England

* Inzamam's sedate 69' was his eighth consecutive score of fifty or more runs in as many as innings against England - a sequence that dates back to third Test at Old Trafford in 2001. This equalled West Indian Clive Lloyd's record of most consecutive fifties by a batsman against England. Inzamam's brilliant run stretch also bettered George Headley's 680 runs as the most by any batsman in eight successive innings against England. See Table 1.

* Muhammad Yousuf's masterful 202 made him only the second man after Bradman to score back-to-back 200-plus scores against England. Bradman smashed 304 at Leeds and then 244 at The Oval in successive Tests on the famous 1934 Ashes series in England.

* For the second time in his 8 year Test career, Muhammad Yousuf carried his bat throughout the full day's play for Pakistan. The previous instance for him was last year when he scored 99 runs in whole of the 3rd day against England at Lahore. However, His 165 runs on the third day at Lord's are now fifth highest by any batsman against England without being dismissed in a full day's play. It is also the highest accumulation of runs by a Pakistani batsman without losing his wicket in a full day's play. See Tables 2 & 3.

* Yousuf became only the seventh double centurion at Lord's. He is also the fifth Pakistani to reach 200-figure mark in an innings for the sixth time on English soil. See Tables 4 & 5.

* Geraint Jones dismissed five Pakistani batsmen behind the stumps. He became the first keeper for England to achieve this feat in a Test innings against Pakistan. See Table 6.

Inisde Edge

Thursday, July 13, 2006

First four-Test rubber for Pakistan in 14 years

* For the first time in 14 years Pakistan would be playing a four (or more) match Test series against any Test playing nation. For reasons better known to ICC or perhaps PCB, the last time Pakistan did so was when they were World Champions - in 1992 Javed Miandad led Pakistan to a thumping win by 2-1 scoreline in a five match series mostly remembered by Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis’ twin destruction, of Graham Gooch’s camp, sharing 43 of the 71 English wickets, between them, that fell in the series.

* Since the 1992 series against England, Pakistan has only played either three, two or one-off match series. As compared to other teams like Australia, South Africa, England and West Indies’ have played four or more match rubbers regularly during the same time period. See Tables 1 and 2 for more details.

* At Lord's, both teams have an equal win record with three wins against each other. The last time, Lord’s saw a draw between these two sides was in 1987 when the rain won the show with just England’s first innings being completed.

* In the last eight series between the two sides Pakistan have won six, lost one and drew one. Head-to-head, England though still enjoys a better record against Pakistan. In the 63 Tests played so far, England has won 16 as compared to 12 by Pakistan. See Table 3 for series by series break-up of both teams.

Inisde Edge

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