Sri Lanka vs England 2018: 2nd Test – Statistical Highlights

Coming into the series without an away Test win in more than two years, England have won their first Test series in Sri Lanka after 17 years. After a convincing 211-run win in the second Test, England won the second game of the series by 57 runs to seal the Test series with one more game to be played.

Sri Lanka took a 46-run first innings lead before Joe Root’s century in the second innings helped England set a 301-run target in front of the hosts. Sri Lanka stood as favourites at 221/5 after recovering from 26/3 but could only add 22 runs for the last five wickets and fell short of the target.

All the major stats and numbers that were recorded during the second Test match in Pallekele:

1 – This is the first time when England won the Test, ODI and T20I series on an away tour. They won the ODI series 3-1 and the one-off T20I game before the Test series.

2 – Jack Leach is only the 2nd England spinner to claim a five-wicket haul while opening the bowling in the last 40 years. Monty Panesar took 6/81 in India’s second innings during the 2012 Mumbai Test.

3 – Only the 3rd time England won a Test match without a pacer taking a wicket. They defeated India in the 1952 Kanpur Test and Australia in the 1956 Manchester Test despite pacers going wicketless.

9 – Number of dismissals that were either bowled or LBW during England’s second innings. These are the joint second most number of dismissals via bowled and LBW in a Test inning. Ten Australian batsmen got out bowled/LBW in the first innings of the 1948 Adelaide Test against India which is the only such instance thus far.

15 – None of Joe Root’s 15 Test centuries been in a losing cause. Root’s 11 centuries resulted in England’s wins while other four coming in draws. His 120-ball century in the second innings is the fastest known Test century by an England captain.

38 – Number of wickets bagged by the spinners in this Test; the most in a single Test match. The previous most was 37 wickets in the 1969 Nagpur Test between India and New Zealand.

56.25 – Percentage of Sam Curran’s 64 runs in the first innings that he got with sixes. The England no.8 hit six sixes and a four in his 64-run knock. This is the 4th highest % of runs coming via sixes in a Test inning. Tim Southee made 70.13% runs when he hit nine sixes during his 77* against England in 2008.

1987 – Jack Leach is only the 2nd England player in the last 60 years to open the bowling and batting in the same Test match. Graham Gooch achieved this double during the 1987 Faisalabad Test against Pakistan.

2001 – Last time England won a Test series in Sri Lanka was way back in 2001. Their last Test series win in Asia was in 2012 against India. England’s last away Test series win was the 2015/16 series in South Africa.

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