Stats Analysis

Hazlewood's bunny, and Starc's first-over strikes

Hashim Amla has been dismissed five times by Hazlewood in this series, while Mitchell Starc has taken 20 first-over wickets in all international matches in the last two years

Josh Hazlewood has been the emphatic winner in this head-to-head battle  ESPNcricinfo Ltd

5 Number of times Josh Hazlewood has dismissed Hashim Amla in this series; this is the first time a bowler has dismissed Amla more than four times in a series. Amla has scored only 29 from 52 balls off Hazlewood, at an average of 5.80.

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Bowlers who have dismissed Amla most often in a series
Bowler Series Runs Balls Dismissals Average
 Josh Hazlewood  SA in Aus, 2016-17  29  52  5  5.80
 Stuart Broad  Eng in SA, 2015-16  75  207  4  18.75
 S Sreesanth  Ind in SA, 2006-07  22  69  4  5.50

15 Instances in Test history of a batsman being dismissed by the same bowler in every innings that he has been dismissed in, in a Test series. The last such instance also involved a South African batsman: Stiaan van Zyl was dismissed by R Ashwin in five out of five innings in India last season.

Batsmen out to same bowler in every dismissal in a series (Min 5 dismissals)
batsman bowler Dismissals Series
 Hashim Amla  Josh Hazlewood  5  SA in Aus, 2016-17
  Stiaan van Zyl   R Ashwin  5  SA in Ind, 2015-16
  VVS Laxman   Ajantha Mendis  5  Ind in SL, 2008
  Matthew Hayden   Makhaya Ntini  6  Aus in SA, 2005-06
  Ricky Ponting   Harbhajan Singh  5  Aus in Ind, 2000-01
  Daren Ganga   Shaun Pollock  6  WI in SA, 1998-99
  Alec Stewart   Mushtaq Ahmed  5  Pak in Eng, 1996
  Chandika Hathurusingha   Allan Donald  5  SA in SL, 1993
  Navjot Sidhu   Angus Fraser  5  Ind in Eng, 1990
  Greg Matthews   Richard Hadlee  6  NZ in Aus, 1985-86
  Talat Ali   Richard Hadlee  5  Pak in NZ, 1978-79
  Hanif Mohammad   Richard Collinge  5  Pak in NZ, 1964-65
  Polly Umrigar   David Allen  5  Eng in Ind, 1961-62
  Nigel Howard   Vinoo Mankad  5  Eng in Ind, 1951-52
  Charlie Barnett   Ernie McCormick  5   The Ashes, 1938

8 Wickets for Mitchell Starc in the first over of a Test innings, which is the joint highest among all bowlers since his debut, in December 2011. He has done it twice in this series against South Africa, dismissing Stephen Cook in the first over in Perth.

Mitchell Starc has been devastating in the first over of a Test innings, taking eight wickets in 37 such overs  ESPNcricinfo Ltd

20 Wickets in the first over for Starc in all international cricket since the start of 2015 - eight in Tests, 11 in ODIs and one in T20Is. No other bowler has more than seven such wickets during this period.

Most wkts in 1st over of an inngs, in all int matches since Jan 2015
Bowler Wickets Average
 Mitchell Starc  20  9.20
 Dawlat Zadran  7  12.57
 Lasith Malinga  7  7.28
 David Willey  7  18.71
 Mohammad Amir  6  15.66
 Dhammika Prasad  6  4.83
 Jerome Taylor  6  20.00

90.88 Usman Khawaja's average in his last ten Test innings at home, since his comeback to the team last season. He has scored four hundreds in these ten innings, and his scores read as follows: 174, 9*, 121, 144, 56, 4, 97, 4, 64, 145. Overall, Khawaja has a home average of 67.42 (944 runs in 16 innings), and an away average of 30.29 (515 runs in 18 innings).

31 Wickets for Nathan Lyon in six Tests in Adelaide, his highest at any venue. He averages 27.41 at the venue, compared to a career average of 33.43.

With inputs from Shiva Jayaraman.

Josh HazlewoodHashim AmlaMitchell StarcSouth AfricaAustraliaAustralia vs South AfricaSouth Africa tour of Australia

S Rajesh is stats editor of ESPNcricinfo. @rajeshstats