England vs West Indies, 2020: 2nd Test, Day 1 – End of Holder's streak, Stokes-Sibley's rescue act and more stats

England made steady progress after been put to bat on the first day of the crucial second Test match in Manchester. Roston Chase got the wickets of Rory Burns and Zak Crawley on successive balls while Joe Root fell for only 23 runs as England were reduced to 81/3. But opener Dominic Sibley (86*) and Ben Stokes (59*) smashed unbeaten fifties to help England end the first day at 207/3. The duo put on 126 runs for the 4th wicket during a partnership that is spread over 304 balls.

Here we look at all the statistical highlights from the first day of the Old Trafford Test match:

West Indies make history at the toss:

1993 – West Indies became the first team in more than 27 years to bowl first after winning the toss in a Manchester Test match. The last team to do so was England in the 1993 Test against Australia. In fact, no team till date has managed to win a Test after electing to bat first at this venue.

In the 79 Test matches at this venue prior to the ongoing game, the team winning the toss elected to bowl only on eight instances. The 1993 Ashes Test was won by Australia after been put into bat and draw was the result in the remaining seven occasions.

A long partnership to England’s rescue:

50.4 – The unbeaten 126-run partnership between Dominic Sibley and Ben Stokes has been 50.4 overs long. This is the longest 4th wicket partnership for England in Test cricket since the start of 2013.

The last England pair to bat 50 or more overs for the 4th wicket in Test cricket was 78.2 overs for 208 runs by the pair of Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott in their 2nd innings of the 2012 Nagpur Test against India.

Joseph picks up Root yet again:

4 – Alzarri Joseph has picked up the wicket of Joe Root on four occasions in six Test innings where they faced off. Root ended up scoring a century in the two innings where he wasn’t dismissed by Joseph. All the four dismissals came since the start of 2019 in the 82 balls across five innings at the cost of 45 runs.

No captain hunt for Holder:

4 – Alzarri dismissing Root brought an end to Jason Holder’s streak of dismissing opposition captains in Test cricket. The West Indies captain dismissed his opposite number twice in the previous two Tests – Rashid Khan (AFG, 2019 Lucknow) and Ben Stokes (ENG, 2020 Southampton).

Spin works for the West Indies:

2000 – Roston Chase picked up the first two wickets of the England innings that too in successive deliveries. The last instance of the first two wickets of a Test match hosted by England fell to the spin bowler of the team that elected to bowl first was during 2000 The Oval Test between England and West Indies. The leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo of West Indies claimed the first two wickets of England in the space of three balls.