2nd Test: England v Zimbabwe, Statistical Highlights

It was the 1498th Test match in cricket history

Rajneesh Gupta

08-Jun-2000

It was the 1498th Test match in cricket history.

It was England's 768th and Zimbabwe's 43rd Test.

It was fourth Test between these two sides. The record now reads: England one, drawn three.

It was the 389th Test on England soil and 47th on this ground.

Umpires Dave Orchard and Mervyn Kitchen were officiating in their 19th and 20th match respectively.

M. Nkala was making his debut. He became the 45th player to appear in a Test match for Zimbabwe.

This match was 20th for Andy Flower as Zimbabwe's skipper. He now holds the distinction of captaining Zimbabwe in most matches. Flower was earlier at level with Alistair Campbell with 19 Tests as in charge of Zimbabwean side.

Mike Atherton scored his 14th Test hundred in his 97th Test - his first against Zimbabwe.

The hundred was Atherton's fifth at this venue. He has now equalled Denis Compton's record of scoring most hundreds at this venue.

Atherton's innings is the highest for England against Zimbabwe. This obliterates Alec Stewart's 124* in the Lord's Test of this series.

Mike Atherton during his innings became the leading run scorer in Test matches at Nottingham moving ahead of Denis Compton (955 runs in 7 Tests) and Graham Gooch (936 runs in 10 Tests). Later in the second innings Atherton also completed his 1000 runs at Nottingham. At the end of this Test Atherton's aggregate in Tests at Nottingham reads as 1032 runs in 10 Tests and and 17 innings keeping an average of 64.50. His breakup: 252 in 2 Tests v New Zealand @ 126.00,192 in 2 Tests v West Indies @ 48.00,170 in one Test v Zimbabwe at 85.00,160 in one Test v India @ 160.00,156 in one Test v South Africa @ 156.00 and 102 in 3 Tests v Australia @ 17.00

The first wicket stand of 121 runs between Mike Atherton and Mark Ramprakash is England's best for this wicket against Zimbabwe. This obliterates the 48 run stand between Nick Knight and Mike Atherton at Bulawayo in 1996-97.

Nasser Hussain, on 16, completed his 3000 runs in Test cricket in his 49th Test and 86th innings. He became the 29th Englishman and 107th batsman in Test annals to do so.

The sixth wicket stand of 43 runs between Mike Atherton and Andrew Flintoff is England's best for this wicket against Zimbabwe. This expunges the 22 run stand between Nick Knight and Darren Gough at Bulawayo in 1996-97.

The seventh wicket stand of 39 runs between Atherton and Schofield is a new record for England for this wicket against Zimbabwe. This surpasses the 34 run stand between John Crawley and Robert Crawley at Harare in 1996-97.

The eighth wicket stand of 32 runs between Andrew Caddick and Darren Gough is England's highest for this wicket against Zimbabwe. This puts into shade the previous highest of 20 between Alec Stewart and Andrew Caddick in the Lord's Test of this series.

Murray Goodwin scored his third hundred in his 19th Test - his first against England.

Goodwin's innings is the highest for Zimbabwe against England. This obliterates Andy Flower's 112 at Bulawayo on 18-12-1996.

The third wicket partnership of 129 runs between Goodwin and Neil Johnson is Zimbabwe's best for this wicket against England. This obliterates the previous highest of 64 between Grant Flower and Dave Houghton at Harare in 1996-97.

The fourth wicket stand of 122 runs between Goodwin and Andy Flower is a new record for Zimbabwe for this wicket against England. This expunges the previous highest of 70 between Dave Houghton and Andy Flower at Bulawayo in 1996-97.

Zimbabwe provided the 18th instance of a side declaring its first innings despite being in arrear in Test cricket. It was the third such instance for Zimbabwe. However it was only second time in Test cricket that a side declared its first innings despite being in arrear with only four wickets down. The following table lists all such instances in chronological order :

Score Country Opponents Arrear Venue Season

81-7d     England v West Indies     21   Bridgetown    1934-35
76-9d     England v Australia      124   Melbourne     1936-37
291-9d    India v Australia        103   Melbourne     1947-48
257-9d    South Africa v England   122   Jo'burg       1948-49
68-7d     England v Australia      160   Brisbane      1950-51
419-9d    England v South Africa    64   Nottingham    1951
338-8d    West Indies v England     55   Port-of-Spain 1959-60
313-7d    New Zealand v England      8   Auckland      1970-71
462-9d    India v Pakistan          41   Faisalabad    1978-79
272-4d    Pakistan v India          59   Calcutta      1979-80
395-8d    Australia v West Indies   54   Perth         1988-89
438-7d    Pakistan v New Zealand     9   Wellington    1988-89
274-9d    Sri Lanka v Australia     63   Moratuwa      1992-93
283-9d    Zimbabwe v New Zealand    52   Harare        1992-93
296-9d    Sri Lanka v South Africa  20   Colombo       1993-94
319-8d    Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka      64   Harare        1994-95
580-9d    Pakistan v Australia      19   Rawalpindi    1998-99
285-4d    Zimbabwe v England        89   Nottingham    2000

Note : England forfeited its first innings against South Africa (248 for 8d) at Centurion in 1998-99

Mike Atherton top scored in both innings for England. It was the third occasion he was making this record. The previous two occasions for him were v Australia at Lord's in 1993 (80 & 99) and v South Africa at Cape Town in 1999-00 (71 & 35). A total of 38 Englishmen have now top scored in both innings of a Test on 55 occasions. David Gower heads the list with four such instances, while Mike Atherton follows him alongwith Herbert Sutcliffe and Jack Hobbs with three instances each. Others to do so for England on more than one occasion are Graham Gooch, Tony Greig, Wally Hammond, 'Patsy'Hendren, Nasser Hussain, Peter May, Robin Smith and Frank Woolley,.

Nkala became fifth Zimbabwean to capture five wickets in a match on Test match debut after John Traicos (5-86,v India, Harare,1992-93), Bryan Strang (5-50,v Pakistan, Bulawayo,1994-95), Charlie Lock (5-105,v South Africa, Harare,1995-96) and Adam Huckle (5-116,v New Zealand, Harare, 1997-98).

Nkala's match figures (5-104) are the best for a Zimbabwean making his debut on foreign soil putting into shade Bryan Murphy's 4 for 55 v West Indies at Port-of-Spain in March this year.

At the end of the series :

England's overall Test record : played 768,won 258,lost 222,drawn 288.

Zimbabwe's overall Test record : played 43,won 3,lost 22,drawn 18.

Nasser Hussain's captaincy record : played 10,won 3,lost 4,drawn 3.

Andy Flower's captaincy record : played 20,won one,lost 10,drawn 9.

Zimbabwe England England vs Zimbabwe Zimbabwe tour of England and Ireland