Thirteen wins and counting

The first Test at Lord's, after which Shahid Afridi retired from Test cricket, ended in Australia's 13th consecutive victory against Pakistan in the format. It's the most wins any team has strung together against a particular opponent - surpassing Sri Lanka's 12 victories on the trot against Bangladesh - and Australia have the opportunity to extend it further when the second Test begins at Headingley today.

Australia's winning streak against Pakistan began with a ten-wicket victory at the Gabba in 1999, and includes matches in Sri Lanka, Sharjah and now England. Their unbeaten run against Pakistan is presently 16 Tests, after winning in Rawalpindi and drawing at Peshawar and Karachi in 1998, when Australia toured Pakistan last. For Australia's last defeat against Pakistan, you'd have to revisit Sydney 1995, when Ijaz Ahmed scored a hundred and Mushtaq Ahmed took nine wickets in a 74-run win. The closest Pakistan came to ending the domination was also at the SCG, in 2009-10, when they collapsed for 139 while chasing a target of 176.

The asterisk against an entry in the tables indicates an ongoing streak of victories by a team against another. Apart from Australia's against Pakistan, the only other ongoing streaks comprising more than five Tests are by various teams - Sri Lanka, South Africa (8), England (8) and Pakistan (6) - against Bangladesh. India's fourth out of seven Tests against Bangladesh was a rain-affected draw, which ended their run, while another rain-affected draw interrupted New Zealand's wins against Bangladesh at seven Tests. West Indies and Zimbabwe have both lost Tests against Bangladesh, while Australia have played only four Tests against them.

The longest unbeaten run in Test cricket - 47 Tests without defeat - belongs to England against New Zealand. It began with an eight-wicket win in New Zealand's first Test, in Christchurch in 1930, and continued for more than four decades. New Zealand's maiden victory against England finally came at the Basin Reserve in 1978, when Richard Hadlee, who took 10 in the match, shot out the visitors for 64 to secure a 72-run win. As a result, debutants John Wright and Stephen Boock tasted victory in their first Test; in contrast, Bert Sutcliffe, a New Zealand legend, went 42 matches without a win.

England were also involved in the next two longest unbeaten streaks, though they were on the wrong end of one of them. England did not lose to Pakistan in 30 Tests between 1961 and 1982 and did not win against West Indies in 29 Tests between 1976 and 1988.

The longest ongoing unbeaten run is also against New Zealand. Australia haven't lost to them in 21 Tests, the first of which was in November 1993, before Daniel Vettori had begun his career. Australia's streak against New Zealand could climb up the table below but England's record is still a decade or more away - provided New Zealand don't win one, of course.

Australia hold the longest winning streak in ODIs - 22 against Zimbabwe. However, that run was cut short by a washout at the MCG in 2004, after which Australia won three more matches, taking their unbeaten run against Zimbabwe to 26, which is also the longest. This run of Australia's against Zimbabwe began after a shock upset in the first-ever game between the countries, in the 1983 World Cup, when Duncan Fletcher scored a half-century and took four wickets in Nottingham to give Zimbabwe their first win in their first ODI.

The longest Twenty20 streak is also Australia's current five-match unbeaten run against New Zealand. Australia won the first four internationals between the teams and tied the fifth, in Christchurch. New Zealand eventually won the one-over eliminator, but they are yet to beat Australia in a contest over 20 overs.

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