South Africa vs England, 2019-20: 4th Test, Day 2 – Mark Wood and Stuart Broad's six-hitting spree, Lower-order records, Root's fifty and more stats

England continued their dominance over the South African team as they bagged six wickets for 88 runs after posting 400-run total. Joe Root (59) and Ollie Pope (56) put England in a solid position of 258/4 before it became 269/7 and eventually 318/9. However, Mark Wood (35* off 39) and Stuart Broad (43 off 28) added 82 for the last wicket in 8.2 overs to help England reach 400. South Africa tried to survive the England bowling but failed in doing so as they made 88/6 by stumps on the second day after battling 41.5 overs.

All the statistical highlights from England dominated 2nd day’s play in the Johannesburg Test:

A big total without a big contribution:

66 – Zak Crawley’s 66 is the highest individual score for England in the first innings; the lowest ‘highest individual score’ in a 400+ total in Test history. The previous lowest top individual score in a Test total of 400+ was 68 by David Boon when Australia posted 471 during the 1992 Colombo Test against Sri Lanka.

Root goes past big names:

47 – Number of fifties in Test cricket by Joe Root; the 2nd most by any player for England after Sir Alastair Cook’s 57 fifties. Root went past Graham Gooch, Michael Atherton and Ian Bell with this fifty as all the three players have 46 Test half-centuries apiece.

Valuable contributions down the order for England:

3 – England’s bottom three of Chris Woakes (32), Mark Wood (35*) and Stuart Broad (43) became only the 3rd trio in the history of Test cricket to score 300+ runs while batting at No.9 and lower positions.

England’s first innings of the 1966 Test against West Indies at The Oval and South Africa’s first innings against Australia in the 1998 Adelaide Test are the other two instances of No.9, 10 and 11 batters scoring 30+ runs in a Test inning.

9.84 – The 10th wicket partnership stand of 82 between Mark Wood and Stuart Broad came in 50 balls only. Their partnership run-rate of 9.84 is now the 5th highest in any Test partnership that lasted 50 balls. This is also the first time any England pair had 9+ RR during a partnership of 50+ balls in this format (Where balls data of partnerships is recorded).

82 – The 82-run stand between Wood and Broad pair is now the highest for the 10th wicket in Test cricket at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. The previous highest was 71 by Allan Donald and Fanie de Villiers in the 1995 Test against Pakistan.

A six-hitting spree from the lower-order:

4 – Number of sixes by Stuart Broad in the first innings; the joint 2nd most by a No.11 batsman in a Test inning. Shane Shillingford hit five sixes against New Zealand in the 4th inning of the 2014 Kingston Test while six other No.11 players including Broad had hit four sixes while at this position in a Test inning.

7 – A total of seven sixes were hit by No.10 (Mark Wood – 3) and No.11 (Stuart Broad – 4) batters in England’s first innings; the 2nd most in any Test inning. During the 2008 Napier Test against England, the New Zealand’s No.10 batsman Tim Southee smashed 9 sixes in the 4th inning.