Warner's WACA love affair

Stats highlights from the third day's play between Australia and England at WACA Ground, Perth

Shiva Jayaraman

15-Dec-2013

David Warner and Chris Rogers put on a century opening stand, Australia v England, 3rd Test, Perth, 3rd day, December 15, 2013

This was David Warner's fifth hundred in Tests and his second at the WACA Ground. Warner has scored 394 runs at 78.80 with three fifty-plus scores at this venue. He's scored his runs here at a fast pace too - at a strike rate of 88.53. Among batsmen with at least 300 Test runs at this ground, only Adam Gilchrist has scored his runs faster than Warner.

Warner became only the second opener in Tests after Michael Slater to hit two hundreds at the WACA and the 12th batsman to hit two hundreds at this venue. Only six openers - including Warner today - have managed to hit a century in the second innings at this venue. The last time an Australia opener hit a century in the second innings at this venue was Mark Taylor against New Zealand in 1993.

Warner hit fifty-plus in both the innings of this Test, the first time an Australia opener hit two fifty-plus scores in an Ashes Test since Shane Watson at the Adelaide Oval in 2010. This was the first time an Australia opener hit a century and a fifty in the same Ashes Test since Justin Langer's 82 and 100 not-out at Brisbane in 2006.

Warner has become the first Australia opener since Matthew Hayden in 2002 to hit two or more centuries in an Ashes series. He's scored 457 runs in this Ashes at 91.40 from six innings, including four fifty-plus scores. Earlier this year in England, Warner had scored 138 runs at 23.00 from six innings.

The 157-run partnership between Warner and Chris Rogers was the only the third century opening stand in the Ashes at the WACA Ground and Australia's first at the venue in the Ashes. The last time an opening pair added 100 runs at this ground in the Ashes was in 1986, when England's openers - Bill Athey and Chris Broad - added 223 for the first wicket. This was also only the sixth century partnership by Australia openers at the venue.

Rogers also made a significant contribution in the second innings, with a fifty in Australia's second innings today. The last time both their openers hit fifty-plus scores in an innings in the Ashes was 24 Tests and 44 innings ago, at The Oval in 2005 when Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden both got hundreds in Australia's first innings. Including this, there have been only two instances of both openers getting fifty-plus scores in the second innings at this venue. The previous instance came more than ten years ago, in 1993 in this Test against New Zealand, when Taylor hit a century and Slater missed one by just a run.

Peter Siddle dismissed Matt Prior for the 11th time in Tests, in England's innings today. This equals the most any batsman has been dismissed by a bowler in Tests since 2002. Siddle himself and Ashwell Prince have been dismissed 11 times each by James Anderson and Shane Warne, respectively, in Tests since 2002. Click here for a list of batsmen to have been dismissed by a bowler most often in Tests.

Including this Test, Australia have scored 600 or more in a match for the fourth consecutive Ashes Test since they totalled 603 runs in the Oval Test earlier this year. The last time this happened was way back in 1946-47 when they had a similar streak of four 600-plus totals for the match. There were only two other such streaks of four or more 600-plus totals by Australia before that. Across the 1937-38 and 1938 seasons, they had a streak of five Tests in which they totalled 600 runs or more in each Test. The other such instance came in 1928-29, when they totalled 600 or more in four consecutive Tests.

England's lower-middle order and their tail failed yet again to make any difference with the bat - their last-five wickets could add only 61 runs in their first innings. This was the 11th time in 18 innings - in which England have been all out - that their last-five wickets failed to total 100 runs in 2013. No other team has fared as badly - the next in that list are New Zealand with nine such instances and Pakistan with eight such instances.

Teams losing last-five wickets for less than 100 most often in 2013
Team	Inns	All-out inns	last five scoring <100	%age
England	24	18	11	61.1
New Zealand	19	13	9	69.2
Pakistan	14	12	8	66.7
Zimbabwe	12	11	7	63.6
West Indies	11	9	5	55.6
Bangladesh	12	8	4	50.0
South Africa	10	6	3	50.0
India	9	6	3	50.0
Australia	26	15	2	13.3
Sri Lanka	6	3	2	66.7

David Warner Peter Siddle Chris Rogers Matt Prior Australia England Australia vs England England tour of Australia

Shiva Jayaraman is a sub-editor (stats) at ESPNcricinfo.com