Andy Zaltzman
@ZaltzCricket
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Comedian, host of The Bugle Podcast and The News Quiz, Test Match Special cricket statistician.
@TheNorthernHemisphere
Joined January 2011
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50 up. At an astonishing rate - better than a resignation per hour. We are truly seeing an entirely new approach in the Stokes-McCullum era. Phenomenal.
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New blueprint for winning a series in Aus:
Lose your best batsman
Lose your entire seam attack
Lose your two best spinners
Lose first Test
Debuts for 5 players
No batsman with 300 runs in series
No bowler with 15 wkts in series.
Bingo.
One of the great team/squad performances.
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England won the World Cup without winning the final; and lost the Ashes without losing the series. Thanks be to Cricket. Amen.
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My personal favourite Warne memory - Oval 2005, 12 wickets in the match, 5th-day crowd taking time out from celebrating the first Ashes win in almost two decades to chant "we wish you were English". A compelling, unique cricketer of astonishing brilliance.
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It's been an immense pleasure and honour to be part of the
@bbctms
coverage this Test summer. A genuine childhood dream. Albeit that I was quite an odd child. Thanks to all my colleagues, and to our listeners.
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That is one of the greatest moments in British sport history. A mindboggling achievement, in a mesmerically brilliant match by both players.
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That was a magical game of cricket. Astonishing performance by India today.
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This has been a sad, tragic week for (a) the world, and (b) cricket. Two of my favourite things.
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That was one of the most extraordinary sessions of Test cricket I have seen.
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What makes the Angelo Mathews timed out dismissal so absurd is that if he had faced one ball, then his chinstrap had broken, no-one would have batted even half an eyelid about him taking a minute or two to fix/replace it before the next ball. A ridiculous dismissal.
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Ashwin outside Asia...
First 9 Tests (2011-15), 24 wickets, average 56.5, economy 3.24.
Last 14 Tests (2016-20): 54 wickets, average 25.8, economy 2.54.
#AUSvIND
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Result margins in this series: 2 wickets, 43 runs, 3 wickets and 49 runs.
In all 343 men’s Ashes Tests played before this series, there had been only 25 matches won by margins of under 50 runs or by three or fewer wickets (and none in the 1960s or 1970s).
Phenomenal series.
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One of the great days in Test cricket history, all round. Two genuinely amazing away wins, two 7-fors for Test rookies, Pope playing one of England's greatest innings.
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Some news about which I am very excited...
It is a huge privilege to be entrusted with the News Quiz chair, and I look forward to buttering as many hot potatoes as possible, alongside all the show's fantastic panellists.
We're delighted to announce Andy Zaltzman as our permanent News Quiz host on
@BBCRadio4
! 2021 headlines beware
@ZaltzCricket
!
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Earliest 100 in 1st innings of Tests since 2001:
Sehwag, 25.3 overs
Warner, 26.2 (today)
Warner, 30.2
Sehwag, 30.5
Sehwag, 33.5
Sehwag, 34.2
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One of England's greatest Test wins. Up there with Jamaica 1990, for me. A staggering performance.
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That is the worst display of Test batting I have watched in the last, ooooh, 11 days.
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Bairstow has 6 ducks in his last 9 innings against India.
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The last time a bowler took all 10 in the first innings of the match in a first-class game was Debasis Mohanty, East Zone v South Zone, Duleep Trophy, Jan 2001. One of his victims: new India coach Rahul Dravid (caught for 0 by Deep Dasgupta, who's been commentating on Patel's 10)
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WOAKES STAT ALERT: 19 wickets at 18.1. First England bowler with 15+ wickets average under 20 in an Ashes series since Ellison in 1985. Also third England bowler to take 6+ in three consecutive Tests in a home Ashes, after Bedser in 1953 (four in a row) and Laker in 1956.
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Maxwell also broke the ODI record for highest score batting at 6 or lower, which had belonged to Kapil Dev for over 40 years, since he made 175* v Zimbabwe in Tunbridge Wells in 1983 WC (the first game of cricket I ever went to).
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Shami the first bowler to take 4 WC five-fors.
Three in 6 inns this tournament - he's taken as many 5-fors in this World Cup as Bob Willis, Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Malcolm Marshall, Kapil Dev, Ravi Ashwin and Shane Warne have in their entire ODI careers combined (992 innings).
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Kohli has now scored as many ODI 100s in 291 matches (279 innings) as India collectively did in their first 347 ODIs (2922 innings, from 1974 to Jan 1998).
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Jos Buttler putting in a strong bid for oddest wicket-keeping performance in Test history.
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In the two India v NZ games this tournament:
Shami 12 for 111.
Mitchell 264 for 2.
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If India score the 49 they need in under 12.4 overs (including the two already bowled), this will be the shortest completed Test since the Second World War.
Here's a list of the shortest completed Tests:
#INDvENG
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Dear Cricket,
Please stop going off for bad light.
Sincerely,
All cricket fans.
PS Especially when you are supposedly trying to sell the game to a new generation.
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Moeen Ali in 4th innings: 63 wickets average 23.17. Only 0.03 higher than Shane Warne's 4th-innings average.
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They should at least have let Ashwin bowl a ceremonial delivery out in the middle.
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World Cup, Ashes, Smith, Stokes - you've all been overshadowed by the moment of the cricketing summer... Kent's Darren Stevens, aged 43, becomes the oldest player to hit a first-class double-hundred since Walter Keeton in 1949.
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Austraila's 267 is the lowest total to win an innings in Test cricket since 1986, joint 8th lowest ever, and 2nd lowest in Ashes history, after the 172 that won the 1888 Old Trafford Test for England.
#Ashes
#PleaseMakeItStop
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18 October 1922: BBC is born.
19 October 1922: Government collapses and the PM (David Lloyd George) resigns.
18 October 2022: BBC celebrates 100th birthday.
19 October 2022: Well, nearly there.
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Can't think of a bigger shock in Test history than Bangladesh's win in NZ. Possibly in cricket history. In 21 previous Tests in NZ, Aus, SA and England, Bangladesh had lost all 21, 15 by an innnings, the rest heavily. NZ had won 10 of last 11 at home.
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Here's my TMS scoresheet of the stand between Buttler (purple) and Woakes (light blue)... brilliant attack, followed by ruthless accumulation. One of England's finest Test partnerships, I would say.
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One innings into the World Cup, and already a sensational piece of planet-shattering history - all 11 England players make double figures, the first time any team has done so in ODIs (men's & women's).
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Pat Cummins' 44 not out is the highest 4th-innings score to win a Test by someone batting at 9 or lower.
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India hit just two boundaries in overs 11-40 inclusive - the joint fewest boundaries in that phase of a men's WC innings, where ball-by-ball data available (over 750+ innings)
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49 consecutive overs of bouncers. Australia have lost 7 for 116. England have given themselves a chance, the only way they could possibly have done. It's been the least entertaining cricket I have ever watched.
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Anderson career phases:
First 45 Tests (2003-Jan 2010): 156w average 34.8.
Next 46 Tests (May 2010 to end of 2013-14 Ashes): 187w at 27.2.
Last 66 Tests (since 2014 summer): 268w at 21.1.
An extraordinary narrative of personal improvement.
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To put Maxwell's mayhemic masterpiece in persepctive:
not only was his 201* at no.6 the first double-hundred in a chase, but no-one batting at 5 or lower had ever scored 150+ in a successful ODI chase (and no-one at 6 or lower 130+)...
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Yesterday's game was the 38th tie in 4046 completed men's ODIs. The 5th in 432 World Cup matches. On those numbers you would expect a tied World Cup final about once every 400 years.
@teasri
It will never happen again, anyway.
Can
@cricvizanalyst
or
@ZaltzCricket
shed any light on the probability of a tied match, a tied super over, and that all happening in a World Cup final?
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That has been a truly phenomenal innings. 50 off 82, then next 50 off 33. Came in at 80 for 4, 125 behind. High-impact brilliance.
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250 boundaries in the match (24 sixes, 226 fours) - the most ever struck in a Test.
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Where cricket sporadically chooses to care about speed of play, and where it completely can't be arsed to do anything about it, remains bafflingly inconsistent.
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Australia hit 370 boundaries (31 sixes, 339 fours) to England's 346 (43 sixes, 303 fours). So Australia would have won. By the barest of margins.
@ZaltzCricket
We should, of course, have settled the series in the most trusted and fairest of ways - count back on boundaries scored. What would the scores have been?
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India's top 5 have collective scored over 2570 runs in this tournament, average 67.6 - currently the highest average by a team's top 5 in a World Cup, ahead of Australia's 65.2 in 2007. This after they began the tournament with three ducks v Aus (since when they've averaged 73).
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For those interested, which I imagine isn't absolutely everyone, here are my scorecards that we've been talking about on TMS.
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That was one of the most incredible passages of cricket I've seen. Kusal Perera rockets into the catalogue of greatest Test innings. The record for highest 4th-innings 10th-wicket stand to win a Test has been smashed. Was 57, now 78.
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Virat Kohli in World Cup group stages: 29 innings, 1551 runs, average 70.5, 15 fifty-plus scores including 4 100s. In knockout games: 6 inns, 68 runs, ave 11.3 (just 5 runs in 3 knockout inns in 2015 & 2019). Fascinating to see if he can rectify this glitch in his glittering CV.
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A moment of universe-shattering history. Surrey have set a new record. 613-9, no centuries. One of the great days in the history of civilisation.
Highest scores without a century: 609 - Namibia, v Uganda, 2010-11
605 - Madhya Pradesh, v Haryana, 1998-99
603 - Surrey, v Glos, 2005
581 - Notts, v Derbs, 1899
580 - Islamabad, v Quetta, 2006-07
Surrey currently 578-8. de Grandhomme on 65, could spoil the whole thing.
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Ben Stokes is the first non-wicketkeeper captain to win a Test without bowling or batting.
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Kyle Mayers 210*:
The second highest score in a successful 4th innings chase (behind Gordon Greenidge's 214* at Lord's in 1984, the only other doube-hundred in a winning chase)
Sixth 4th-innings 200 in Test history
Highest 2nd innings score on Test debut
Sixth 200 on debut
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Theresa May wins by the number of Test matches played by Sachin Tendulkar to the number played by David Gower.
#LetMeClingToWhatIKnowInTheseDifficultTimes
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STAT ALERT: England's 122 all out today ends a run of 13 consecutive Tests without being bowled out under 230 - their joint-longest such sequence (matching a run in 1928 & 1929). Before Stokes/McCullum, England had been all out <230 19 times in their previous 18 Tests.
#INDvENG
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That was a magnificent, fluctuating match. Before today, since start of Super 12s, teams chasing 160+ had won 1 lost 10.
NZ had never scored more than 60 in overs 16-20 to win a T20, and England hadn't conceded more than 60 in death overs to lose.
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That was a brilliant match. Hasnain's 1 for 28 was, in the circumstances, absolutely magnificent.
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Fewest innings to reach 50 ten times in Tests:
Herbert Sutcliffe 16
Everton Weekes 17
Harry Brook 18
Don Bradman 19
#Ashes
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If I've crunched the numbers correctly, Ollie Robinson v Babar Azam in this Test - 7 balls, 0 runs, stumps hit twice - is the first instance in men's Tests of a bowler bowling out the opposition number 3 in both innings without conceding a run.
#PAKvENG
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Cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket
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If India win here - not the biggest 'if' - it will be the first time they have won a Test after losing the toss, being put in to bat, and being bowled out for under 200. Previously: 3 draws, 13 defeats.
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Here's the table cricket set I have with me in the Stats Cave. 1920s, I think. Easily the greatest thing ever invented.
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It is one of cricket's more idiotic conventions that the figure given when a player reaches 50 is generally the number of times they've scored between 50 and 99. If Kohli makes 100 today, his next 50 will also be called his "70th". Which is obviously absurd.
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You could write a 300-page book about this passage of play
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Root: 1244 Test runs in 2021. Second most for Eng: Burns, 363.
The 881-run margin between a team's 1st & 2nd highest scorers in a calendar year is, currently, the joint most in Test history - alongside Viv Richards in 1976 (1710 runs, 881 more than Roy Fredericks).
#ENGvIND
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A terrific, fluctuating game. Curran's 95* is the joint highest ever in ODI cricket by someone batting 8 or lower, alongside Woakes' 95* v SL in 2016. England's formidable lower-order strength almost Heimlichs victory from the stomach of defeat.
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First thoughts on the 100 (watched on TV)... An excellent match and advertisement for women's cricket and its continuing advance. For me, there was nothing about the format that improved on T20. Pace of play didn't seem particularly quick...
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Not sure how to mark this delay on my scorecard. I think I'll go with: "Slight dampness, non-optimal light, overwhelming institutional lethargy, and a sport intent on gradual self-destruction."
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Most consecutive Tests in India with a 50+ score:
8: Javed Miandad (1980-87)
7: Alvin Kallicharran (1974-79)
7: VVS Laxman (2009-10)
7: Joe Root (2012-2021)
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Least productive 5-innings sequence by England top order batters (nos 1-7) in a single men's World Cup tournament:
29 - Root, 2023
40 - Livingstone, 2023
42 - Vaughan, 2007
43 - Buttler, 2023
49 - Flintoff, 2007
51 - Taylor, 2015 (one not out)
56 - Bairstow, 2023; Prior 2011
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This is also the first time since 2008 that any bowler has bowled out two top-six India batsmen in one over - previous occasion was SA's Makhaya Ntini, who castled Laxman and Ganguly in the 8th over in Ahmedabad. One of the greatest of Anderson's 5600+ Test overs.
#INDvENG
That was the third time in James Anderson's career that he's bowled two batsmen in the same over. It happened in his very first Test against Zimbabwe in 2003 and against South Africa in 2017.
#IndvEng
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To be fair to England, they have played very well in 12.5% of the last eight men's World Cups.
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Ignore all the excitement about speed. Jofra Archer's debut economy rate - 2.06 - is the lowest by an England bowler on Test debut (20 overs minimum) since Angus Fraser went for 2.04 per over in 1989. There are 72 other debuts in that sample.
#keepittight
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HOLY JOCKSTRAPS. Kyle Jamieson hit five twos in an over - the first time a batsman has hit five twos in an over in a Test, at least since
@espncricinfo
ball-by-ball data began (2001).
#INDvNZ
#WhatATimeToBeAlive
#WorkItIntoTheGaps
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Jimmy Anderson's 100th catch in Tests - he's the sixth player to achieve the treble of 1000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches, after Sobers, Botham, Hooper, Warne and Kallis.
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Fantastic century by Root. At 219 balls, the slowest England century since Stokes/McCullum took over (previously 206 balls, Foakes v SA, Old Trafford, 2022); and the third slowest of Root's 31 Test hundreds.
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How about it,
@ECB_cricket
@BCCI
?
No Tests between end of June and mid-August next year. India due to tour anyway. Might as well fit the 5th Test in then.
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Apologies for the rogue suggestion that today would be Anderson's 100th not out. I forgot to factor in that his total of not outs in the Cricinfo stats included today's innings. I like to think I've given people the opportunity to celebrate it twice.
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India hit 4 fours in overs 11-50. The last time India hit fewer boundaries after over 10 (counting innings when they've batted at least 40 overs in total), was 1999.
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So, this has been one of England's greatest Test performances. A staggeringly good innings by Root, fine support from rest of the top and middle order (7 of top 8 made 30+ - first time for England since 2001), major wickets by all four bowlers, and some tremendous catches.
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No Tests between end of June and mid-August next year. India due to tour anyway. Might as well fit the 5th Test in then.
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England are the first team in men's World Cup cricket to be bowled out in under 35 overs three times in the same tournament:
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This is the first time that a visiting team in India has had 50+ partnerships for first wicket in both innings of a Test since Cook/Compton at Mumbai in 2012-13.
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I'm heading off on holiday. I hope and assume there will be wall-to-wall Ashes coverage on Norwegian TV.
Thanks for all your (mostly pleasant) feedback during the World Cup.
Here are my scoresheets from the final. (Highlighter pens a bit bleached out in the scans.)
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Pakistan won after being 2 for 3 batting first in 1st innings. Only once has a team batting first lost its first 3 wickets for fewer runs, and gone on to win - also Pakistan, 0 for 3 v India, Karachi 2005-06. List:
#WIvPAK
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More bad light. This is a blight on the sport. Does cricket need better balls, better lights, or just a better attitude? Or all three?
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My TMS scoresheets showing Zak Crawley's majestic masterpiece, with all its various phases.
267 off 393 balls.
Began with 45 off 46;
then 12 off 55;
then 69 off 113;
then 42 off 34;
then 18 off 67;
finishing with 81 off 78.
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OLLIE POPE STAT ALERT... Pope's 148* is the highest 2nd-innings score by any player in a Test in India since Alastair Cook's 176 in the 1st Test in Ahmedabad in November 2012.
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Hartley's debut figures... 7-62 the 5th best innings figures by an England player on debut in men's Tests, 2nd best by a spinner; 9-193 in the match the best for Eng on debut since John Lever in Dec 1976 (10-70 v Ind); best by a spinner since Bob Berry in 1950 (9-115 v WI).
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Test match over. 140.2 overs - the shortest completed Test since 1935 (more than 2000 Tests played since then), and the 7th shortest of all time. Three of those shorter were in the 1880s, and the 1935 game (WI v Eng) featured two declarations.
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First World Cup match in which both no.3s out for ducks.
First time England's top 4 all out bowled or lbw in an ODI innings since 2009.
India only the second team to hit the stumps 3 times in opening 10 overs of a World Cup innings this millennium (other was WI v Zim in 2007).
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Rohit Sharma, first 20 balls faced in World Cups:
2015 - 92 runs, 2 dismissals, strike rate 64 per 100 balls;
2019 - 113 runs, 2 dismissals, SR 73;
2023 - 257 runs, 2 dismissals, SR 137.
Phenomenal performance, massively influential.
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I think the umpire waiting 90 seconds until it was exactly the scheduled 3.20pm start time to allow play to begin might be the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen.
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