Stats - Perth serves up a short and spicy Test
The first Ashes Test ended in two days, with Travis Head and Mitchell Starc achieving significant landmarks
Shubham Agarwal
22-Nov-2025
2 days - The Perth Test between Australia and England was only the 26th Test match in 2608 to finish in two days. Seven of those have come in the Ashes. However, the previous time an Ashes Test finished within two days was 104 years ago - the first Test in Nottingham in 1921. Overall, 11 of the 26 two-day Tests have been in the 21st century.
847 - The number of balls bowled in this match, the ninth lowest in a Test with a result. In Ashes history, it is the third lowest, only after the two Tests in 1888 which finished in 788 and 792 balls.
In Australia, this is the second-shortest Test ever, after the Melbourne Test against South Africa in 1932 which took only 656 balls for a result.
69 - Number of balls taken by Travis Head to complete his hundred - the second fastest in Ashes history and the joint third fastest for Australia alongside David Warner, who also took 69 balls for his hundred against India at the WACA in 2012.
Head also broke the record for the fastest fourth-innings hundred in Test cricket, surpassing Gilbert Jessop's 76-ball hundred against Australia in 1902.
60 - Percentage of runs scored by Head in the chase - 123 out of 205. Among the 140 successful 200-plus chases in Tests, it is the third-highest contribution by a batter. Only Gordon Greenidge (62.57%) and Mohammad Ilyas (62.37%) have contributed more in a 200-plus chase.
7.23 - Australia's run rate in the fourth innings is the highest for a successful chase of 200 or more. They broke their opponents' record - England had chased down 299 at a run rate of 5.98 against New Zealand at Trent Bridge in 2022.
10 for 103 - Mitchell Starc's bowling figures in this Test. He achieved his career best 7 for 58 in the first innings and added three more scalps in the second. The last time an Australian quick took a ten-wicket haul in an Ashes Test was in 1991, when Craig McDermott took 11 for 157 at the WACA.
123 - Number of balls taken by Starc to complete his ten-wicket haul, going past Pakistan legspinner Yasir Shah who completed a ten-wicket haul in 125 deliveries against New Zealand in 2018. Among fast bowlers, Stuart Broad had the fastest ten-wicket haul - 133 balls vs West Indies in 2020.
0 for 1 - The scoreline in the first three innings in Perth - the first time the opening partnership didn't add a run in the first three innings of a Test.
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100 - This was Australia's 100th Test win against England at home. No other side has won more matches against an opponent in a country. Australia is also second on this list with 57 wins against England in England.
1639 - Number of balls taken by Scott Boland to complete 50 Test wickets in Australia - the quickest to 50 wickets in a country, with Vernon Philander (1383 balls), Kagiso Rabada (1548) and Marco Jansen (1633) ahead of him. Brett Lee (2061 balls) previously held the record for Australia at home.
9 - Zak Crawley became the ninth England opener to bag a pair in Test cricket. The last England opener to bag a pair in Tests was Michael Atherton in Johannesburg in 1999. Atherton was also the previous England opener to make a pair in the Ashes (Melbourne, 1998).
Shubham Agarwal is a senior stats analyst at ESPNcricinfo