South Africa v Australia, 2018: 1st Test, Day 1 – Statistical Highlights

The 4-match Test series between South Africa and Australia kick-started at the Kingsmead in Durban where the Aussies made 225 for the loss of five wickets after winning the toss. David Warner and Steve Smith’s fifties helped the visitors to recover after early jolts but the senior players failing to convert the starts put them back in the troubles. Mitchell Marsh (32*) and Tim Paine (21*) put on an unbeaten 48-run stand before bad light brought an end to the day’s play.

All the stats and numbers that were recorded during the first day of South Africa-Australia Test series:

1 – David Warner became the first player to score fifty-plus in six consecutive Test inning in South Africa. His last six Test scores in South Africa read 51, 145, 135, 66, 70 and 115. Wally Hammond and Jacques Kallis had five consecutive fifty-plus Test scores in SA.

5 – Steven Smith scored his 5th consecutive fifty-plus score in Test cricket – 56, 83, 102*, 76 and 239. This is the 2nd time Smith scored five consecutive 50+ scores in this format (First time was in 2015/16).

18 – Number of innings David Warner needed for completing 1000 runs against South Africa in Test cricket. The Australian opener became the joint 2nd fastest to achieve the milestone. Denis Compton and Neil Harvey took 13 innings each while Michael Clarke also took 18 innings for 1000 Test against the Saffers.

20 – Steven Smith now has scored at least one fifty-plus in all the 20 Test series he played so far. These are the 2nd most number of series for any player with at least one 50+ from the debut. England’s Marcus Trescothick scored at least one fifty-plus score in all the 23 series he played in his Test career.

56 – Runs scored by Steven Smith in the first innings. His Test batting average dropped by 0.08 despite scoring a fifty. Smith’s average came down to 63.76 from 63.68 after this inning.

102 – Mitchell Marsh became the 102nd player to score 1000 Test runs for Australia. The Aussies now have the highest number of players with 1000 Test runs for them than for any other team. As many as 101 players have scored 1000 Test runs for England.

200 – This was Smith’s 200th match in his International career. He featured in 61 Tests, 108 ODIs and 30 T20I matches so far.