Ashes 2017-18: 4th Test, Day 3 – Statistical Highlights

Alastair Cook led England’s fight for the 2nd consecutive day to hand his side a huge first inning lead despite they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. His unbeaten innings of 244 wouldn’t be possible if not for a gritty 56-run knock from Stuart Broad who shared 100 for the 9th wicket with Cook. With a total of 491/9 on the board, England leads the home side by 164 runs and will look to add few more if Cook extends his 637-minute stay.

All the cricket stats and numbers that were created during the 3rd day’s play at the MCG:

1 – For the first time in his 151-match Test career, Alastair Cook featured in a 10th wicket partnership in this format. He batted in 272 innings before this Test but batted only once in a 9th or lower wicket stand in Test cricket.

2 – Alastair Cook became the 2nd England player to score multiple double centuries in Test cricket in a calendar year. Wally Hammond scored two Test double hundreds in 1928, 1933 and 1936. He is the first England opener and the 7th opening batsman overall to score two Test double tons in a calendar year.

2 – Despite featuring in all the 113 Test matches of Stuart Broad, this Test was only the 2nd time Cook batted along with Stuart Broad in Test cricket. Both partnered for the first time in November 2015 against Pakistan in Sharjah.

3 – Cook is now the 3rd visiting player after Wally Hammond and Brian Lara to score multiple double hundreds in Australia. Hammond scored three double tons for England in this format in Australia.

4 – Alastair Cook became the 2nd player in Test history after Mahela Jayawardene to bat ten hours in an innings on four different occasions. Hashim Amla, Marvan Atapattu, Younis Khan, Kumar Sangakkara and Javed Miandad all batted 600+ minutes in a Test inning on three different occasions.

5 – Alastair Cook’s double ton in this Test is his 5th in this format. Wally Hammond (7) is the only other player to score five double hundreds for England in Test cricket. His five double tons are the joint 2nd most for any opener in this format behind Virender Sehwag and Marvan Atapattu’s six 200s. Graeme Smith also struck five double tons as an opener.

56 – Stuart Broad’s 56 is the 2nd highest score by No.10 or lower batsman against Australia in the last 30 years of Test cricket. Dale Steyn scored 76 while batting at No.10 in the 2008 MCG Test. Broad’s fifty is also the first by an England’s No.10 batsman in 26 years with the last one coming from Chris Lewis (65 against Windies) in 1991. James Anderson scored 81 while batting at No.11 against India in 2014.

56 – Broad’s 56 is the also the highest individual score by a No.10 batsman in the Ashes since Geoff Lawson’s 74 in 1989 at the Lord’s. Ashton Agar made 98 on his Test debut in 2013 while batting at No.11 at Trent Bridge. Broad’s score is also the highest by an England’s No.10 and lower batsman in a Test in Australia.

244* – Cook’s unbeaten 244 is the highest individual score by a visiting player at the MCG. He surpassed Viv Richards’ 208 that was scored in 1984. Overall, Cook’s 244* is the 6th highest individual Test score at the MCG and the 5th highest score by a visiting player on the Australian soil.

11956 – Cook became the 6th highest run-getter in Test history by going past Brian Lara (11953) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (11867). On the 2nd day, he went past Jayawardene’s tally of 11814 runs.