Second oldest maiden centurion ends long wait

Stats highlights from the second day of the fourth Ashes Test at Durham

Shiva Jayaraman

10-Aug-2013

Chris Rogers' maiden century was the first by an Australian opener in 12 Ashes Tests  •  Getty Images

Chris Rogers became the second oldest Australia batsman after Arthur Richardson to hit a maiden century, at 35 years and 344 days. Arthur Richardson was 37 years and 351 days old when he hit his first and the only century of his career, in the Ashes Test at Leeds in 1926.

Before this innings by Rogers, Australia had gone 12 Ashes Tests without a century form their openers. The previous century by an Australian opener in the Ashes was by Simon Katich, who scored 122 at Cardiff in 2009.

Including Rogers' innings, the last 11 centuries by Australia openers in the Ashes have all been by left-handers. This is not a surprise, though, given that Australia's opening slot in the recent past has been dominated by left-handers. The last time a right-handed opener hit a hundred for Australia in the Ashes was Michael Slater at Sydney in 1999.

Before this innings, Rogers had been dismissed three times in 72 balls by Swann and had scored only 23 runs off the bowler. So, understandably, Rogers started cautiously against Swann scoring 22 runs off the first 53 balls, including four boundaries. But when Rogers was on 96, his skill and patience were put to a stern test, as Swann bowled 19 consecutive dot balls to the batsman, before Rogers broke the shackles with a boundary to reach his maiden century. Rogers scored 26 runs from nine scoring shots off 73 Swann deliveries, which included five boundaries - the most he hit off any bowler in this innings. Rogers showed no signs of nerves when facing Tim Bresnan though: he scored 32 - the most against any bowler in Rogers' innings - off just 39 balls, including four boundaries.

Matt Prior took the 200th catch of his Test career as a wicketkeeper. He is the 11th wicketkeeper to achieve this feat. At 129 innings, Prior is only the eighth quickest wicketkeeper to 200 catches. Mark Boucher, who took 200 catches in his 99th Test innings, is the quickest.* For England, only Alan Knott and Alec Stewart have more catches as a wicketkeeper.

This was Usman Khawaja's first duck of his Test career, from 16 innings. With this, Australia's No. 3 batsmen have scored only 107 runs from seven innings in the series. This is the least Australia's No. 3s have ever scored in the Ashes, from a minimum of seven innings.

This is the first time in 12 innings that Stuart Broad has taken more than two wickets in an innings in the Ashes. The last time he took three or more Australia wickets was his five-wicket haul at The Oval in 2009. In the 11 innings between the two, Broad has figures of 9 for 544.

If any bowler would trouble Michael Clarke in this series, it was expected to be James Anderson, given that he had dismissed the Australia captain six times in Tests beforehand. So it seemed, too, after the first innings at Nottingham, when Anderson bowled Clarke for a duck with a peach of a delivery. But since then, it is Stuart Broad who has had the most success against Clarke, dismissing him four times and conceding only 68 runs in Clarke's next six innings. Before this series, Broad had bowled 187 deliveries at Clarke, dismissing him only twice and giving away 89 runs.

Shane Watson has now failed to convert his last ten Test half-centuries into hundreds and has gone 24 Tests and 45 innings without a hundred. The last time Watson scored a century was against India at Mohali in 2010.

*1200GMT, August 12: The article had said that Matt Prior was the second quickest wicketkeeper to 200 catches in Tests which was factually wrong. This has been corrected.

Chris Rogers Matt Prior Stuart Broad Michael Clarke Australia England England vs Australia Australia tour of England and Scotland

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