Ashes 2017-18: 4th Test, Day 2 – Statistical Highlights

Alastair Cook finally turned up in the Ashes series to score an unbeaten ton on the 2nd day after Australia collapsed to a below-par 327 in the first session. The Aussies lost the last seven wickets for only 67 runs as their captain Steven Smith’s dismissal triggered a collapse. Cook, who struggled in the first three Test matches made a redemption by putting on an unbeaten 112-run 3rd wicket stand with Joe Root (49*) to take England’s total to 192/2.

All the stats and numbers that were recorded during the 2nd day’s play of the Melbourne Test:

1 – Alastair Cook became the first player to score a century at every Ashes venue on Australian soil. Cool also became only the 2nd visiting player after Sunil Gavaskar to score a century at five different Test venues in Australia (Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane).

5 – Cook became the 5th England player to score five Test centuries in Australia. Overall, he is the 9th visiting player with five Test tons on Australian soil.

68.97 – Steven Smith’s 50s to 100s conversion rate in the first innings in Test cricket. Smith scored 29 fifty-plus scores in the first innings out of which he converted 20 of them to hundreds. His 76 in this game is only the 9th time when he failed to convert his fifty to hundred in the first innings. The equivalent record of Smith at home is 11 centuries and three fifties.

445 – For the first time since 2014, Steven Smith got out in Test cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. His dismissal in this game is his first at MCG in 649 balls he faced where he scored 445 runs. No Australian scored as many runs as Smith between two dismissals at a Test venue.

Sachin Tendulkar’s 467 runs at the Sydney Cricket Ground between 2004 and 2008 are the most scored by any player between two dismissals in Test cricket at an Australian venue.

521 – James Anderson’s 521 wickets in Test cricket are the 5th most by any player in the format. He went past Courtney Walsh’s tally of 519 wickets during Australia’s first innings.

2548 – Cook’s hundred in this game is his first in the Ashes in 2548 days. His last Ashes hundred came in January 2011 when he scored 189 in Sydney. His 104* in this game is his 5th century in Ashes with all of them coming in Australia only.

11816 – Alastair Cook’s Test aggregate of 11816 runs as on the 2nd day’s play puts him at the 8th place in the all-time top run-getters list in Test history. He went past Mahela Jayawardene (11814) with his 32nd Test hundred.