Stats highlights from the third day’s play of the Test between Pakistan and England in Sharjah.
Shiva Jayaraman03-Nov-20152003 The last and the only time that Shoaib Malik took a four-for in Tests before his 4 for 33 in England’s first innings. Malik had taken 4 for 42 against South Africa in Lahore. Malik, who has announced his retirement from Test cricket, made his comeback to Testa after a gap of over five years in this series and also made his top score – 245 – in the first Test at Abu Dhabi.47 Runs Shoaib Malik has made in this series after his 245 in the first innings at Abu Dhabi. Malik’s scores after that innings have been 0, 2, 7, 38 and 0. Among those who have hit a double century in a series, there are only two other instances before Malik when a batsman has failed to aggregate at least 50 runs from the other five or more innings played. The last such instance was also against England when Gary Kirsten made 210 in the third Test of the series at Old Trafford, but accumulated just 47 runs from the other seven innings. England’s Bill Edrich is the other batsmen: he aggregated only 21 runs from his first-five innings in a five-match series against South Africa before making 219 in his last innings of the series.14 Number of instances before Shoaib Malik a batsman had got two ducks and a double-hundred in the same series. His duck in Pakistan’s second innings was his second of this series. He had made a double-century in the first innings at Abu Dhabi. The last such instance was by Jacques Kallis in a series against Sri Lanka in 2011-12 when he made 224 in Cape Town following a pair in Durban. Malik though is in elite company with others such as Don Bradman, Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar and Viv Richards among the 14.4 Number of Pakistan openers who have more fifty-plus scores in Tests than Mohammad Hafeez. Hafeez now has 20 such scores and he went past Hanif Mohammad’s tally with his 97* in this innings. Saeed Anwar (36), Mudassar Nazar (24), and Taufeeq Umar (21) are ahead of Hafeez, who has made 3186 runs, including eight hundreds and 12 fifties, at 40.80 while opening in Tests.1.28 Stuart Broad’s economy in this Test – his most economical figures in the 87 matches he has played. Broad has bowled 25 overs including 12 maidens and has gone for all of 32 runs in this match. James Anderson, too, has been economical in this series, with his economy of 1.94 being his best in any series. Anderson’s economy of 1.81 in this match is his second-best in any Test. His best had come in the last Test, when he had an economy of 1.81.4 Number of England’s top-order batsmen (No 1 to No 7) who got out in the forties in the first innings. Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Jonny Bairstow and Samit Patel all did so. The last time before this that four or more top-order batsmen had got out in the forties in a Test innings was in 1978 when Sunil Gavaskar, Chetan Chauhan, Dilip Vengsarkar and Syed Kirmani had been dismissed for scores between 40 and 49 in their first innings against Australia at the SCG. Overall, this was only the fifth such instance.105.16 James Taylor’s average in first-class cricket in his last five matches including his 76 in England’s first innings and his career-best of 291, which came against Sussex in July this year. Taylor has made 631 runs with two hundreds and two fifties in just six innings. Before this Test, Taylor had made 1078 first-class runs at an average of 51.33 in 2015. His 76 in the first innings is his first fifty and his top score in Tests. Taylor had played two home Tests against South Africa in 2012 before his comeback to Test cricket in this match.1 Number of fifty-plus opening stands by Pakistan in Sharjah before the 101-run stand between Mohammad Hafeez and Azhar Ali in their second innings. Ahmed Shehzad and Khurram Manzoor had added 114 runs for the first wicket against Sri Lanka last year. Pakistan’s first wicket had averaged 22.28 in 14 innings before their second innings in this Test. This was also only their second fifty-plus stand in six innings in this series. Hafeez and Shan Masood had added 51 in the first innings of the Dubai Test.
