England vs South Africa Test Series Stats Review: James Anderson’s feat, South Africa’s unique record, and other stats

England continued their domination in Test cricket under new captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum as they defeated South Africa by a nine-wicket margin in the third and the final match to clinch the series 2-1. The game turned out to be a three-day affair as the first day of the match was washed out due to rain and the second day got suspended due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. A low-scoring encounter saw a result in just three days with England emerging victorious largely due to the performances of their pace bowlers.

In the series-decider at the Kennington Oval in London, skipper Stokes won the toss and opted to field first. Ollie Robinson and Stuart Broad wreaked havoc as they picked up five and four wickets respectively to dismiss the Proteas for just 118. Ollie Pope fought alone as he scored 67 before England got all out for 158 in their first innings to take a lead of 40 runs. In the second innings, the top three Protea batters got starts but they failed to convert into big scores.

The visitors got bowled out for 169 with all the four England bowlers amongst the wickets. Chasing just 130 to win the match and the series, Zak Crawley finally struck form as he recorded his first 50-plus score after 16 innings. He remained unbeaten on 69 to guide his side to a comfortable nine-wicket victory in just three days. After losing the opening fixture of the series, Stokes and his side bounced back brilliantly to continue their dominance in Test format. England have now won six out of the seven matches played this summer under Stokes and McCullum. With this, the Proteas have now suffered a back-to-back series loss in England. They lost by a margin of 3-1 (4) in the year 2017.

Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers from the Test series between England and South Africa:

51 – Ollie Robinson reached the landmark of 50 wickets in just his 11^th Test match.

5 – Stuart Broad has now taken the fifth-most wickets (566) in Test cricket. He surpassed Glenn McGrath’s tally of 563 scalps. Muthiah Muralitharan (800), Shane Warne (708), James Anderson (667), and Anil Kumble (619) are in the top four spots. Broad is also in the second position for most wickets by a pacer after Anderson.

6 – England have now won six out of the seven Tests under the leadership of new captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum. Their only loss came in the first match of this series.

954 – Anderson completed the milestone of 950 wickets in international cricket. He is fourth on the list behind Muralitharan (1347), Warner (1001), and Kumble (956).

809 – Broad also reached the landmark of 800 scalps in international matches. The veteran England bowler occupies the eighth position among all.

257 – Pacer Kagiso Rabada achieved the milestone of 250 Test wickets. He became the seventh South African to grab the feat.

57 – Another South African speedster Anrich Nortje completed the landmark of 50 wickets in the longest format of the game.

16 – Zak Crawley registered his first 50-plus score after 16 Test innings in the third and final game of the series.

5/49 – Robinson scripted his best bowling figures of 5/49 in Test cricket in the final match of the series. His previous best was 5/65 which came against India in 2021.

1 – Marco Jansen took his maiden five-wicket haul (5/35) in Test cricket in the last match. His previous best spell of 4/31 came against India in Johannesburg this year.

44 – South Africa have now played 44 Test matches without a draw result. They have won 23 games and lost 21 since the start of July 2017.

2 – Rabada took the second-fewest deliveries (10065) to claim 250 Test wickets. His countryman Dale Steyn tops the chart for reaching the feat in 9927 deliveries.

2012 – South Africa last won a Test series in England ten years back in 2012. Since then, they lost 3-1 (4) in 2017 and the latest one 2-1 in 2022.