Statsman: Usman Khawaja’s unique feat, Stokes’ early declaration and more

13 The number of players who have the distinction of batting for some time (i.e. facing at least one ball) on each of the five days of a Test match. Australian opener Usman Khawaja, in the Birmingham Ashes Test match, became the latest to join this elite list. He thus became only the second Australian to achieve the feat, after Kim Hughes, who did so against England in the Lord’s Test match in 1980, which incidentally was not a part of any Ashes series. The lone Test match was then played as the Centenary Test.

Some batting by a player on all the five days of a Test match

Batter	Bat1	bat2	For	Opp	Venue	Dates	Result
M. L. Jaisimha	20*	74	Ind	Aus	Kolkata	23-28 Jan 1960	Drawn
Geoff Boycott	107	80*	Eng	Aus	Nottingham	28 Jul-2 Aug 1977	Won
Kim Hughes	117	84	Aus	Eng	Lord’s	28 Aug-2 Sep 1980	Drawn
Allan Lamb	23	110	Eng	WI	Lord’s	28 Jun-3 Jul 1984	Lost
Ravi Shastri	111	7*	Ind	Eng	Kolkata	31 Jan 1984-5 Jan 1985	Drawn
Adrian Griffiths	114	18	WI	NZ	Hamilton	16-20 Dec 1999	Lost
Andrew Flintoff (capt)	70	51	Eng	Ind	Mohali	9-13 Mar 2006	Lost
Alviro Petersen	156	39	SAf	NZ	Wellington	23-27 Mar 2012	Drawn
Cheteshwar Pujara	52	22	Ind	SL	Kolkata	16-20 Nov 2017	Drawn
Rory Burns	133	11	Eng	Aus	Birmingham	1-5 Aug 2019	Lost
Kraigg Brathwaite	182	25	WI	Zim	Bulawayo	4-8 Feb 2023	Drawn
Tagenarine Chanderpaul	207*	15	WI	Zim	Bulawayo	4-8 Feb 2023	Drawn
Usman Khawaja	141	65	Aus	Eng	Birmingham	16-20 Jun 2023	Won

Note: Occurred twice in the same Test innings in Bulawayo in Feb 2023

78 The number of overs faced by the English batters before the innings was declared on the opening day of the first Ashes Test in Edgbaston, Birmingham on 16 Jun 2023. This declaration by England makes it the fourth-quickest by a captain in Test cricket history. Before this, no captain in Ashes history has declared so early in the first innings.

Earliest team declaration on day one of a Test match

Overs	Total	by	Agst	Venue	Date	Match result	Captain
44.5	130/9d	Pak	Eng	Lord’s	8 Aug 1974	Drawn	Intikhab Alam
58.2	325/9d	Eng	NZ	Mt Maunganui+	16 Feb 2023	Eng won by 267 runs	Ben Stokes
76.0	259/9d	SA	Aus	Adelaide+	24 Nov 2016	SAf lost by 7 wickets	Faf du Plessis
78.0	393/8d	Eng	Aus	Birmingham	16 Jun 2023	Eng lost by 2 wickets	Ben Stokes
78.3	309/9d	SA	Zim	Port Elizabeth+	26 Dec 2017	SAf won by inns & 120 runs	AB de Villiers

+ day-night Tests

44 The number of runs made by the Aussie captain Pat Cummins during his match-winning fourth innings, run chase in Birmingham. His score is now the highest for a number nine or below batter in a successful run chase in Tests in the fourth innings.

Highest individual scores for a batter at number nine or below in a successful run chase

Score	Batter	Bat#	For	Agst	Venue	Date
44*	Pat Cummins (Capt)	9	Aus	Eng	Birmingham	20 June 2023
42*	R. Ashwin	9	Ind	Ban	Mirpur	25 Dec 2022
40*	Winston Benjamin	10	WI	Pak	Bridgetown	27 Apr 1988
38*	Sydney Barnes	9	Eng	Aus	MCG	7 Jan 1908
35	Rashid Latif (WK)	9	Pak	Aus	Karachi	2 Oct 1994

61 The number of runs added by the Australian pair — Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon — in the match-winning fourth innings run chase. The stand is now the seventh-highest stand for the ninth and the 10th wickets in Test cricket history, where the batting side managed to win the Test match. The Cummins-Lyon stand also became the third-highest in Ashes history.

Highest partnership for the 9th and 10th wickets in a successful fourth-innings run chase in Test cricket

Runs	Wkt	Batter1	Batter2	For	Opp	Venue	Date	Result
81	9^th	V. V. S. Laxman	Ishant Sharma	Ind	Aus	Mohali	5 Oct 2010	Ind won by 1 wkt
78*	10^th	Kusal Perera	Vishwa Fernando	SL	SAf	Durban	16 Feb 2019	SL won by 1 wkt
76*	10^th	Ben Stokes	Jack Leach	Eng	Aus	Leeds	25 Aug 2019	Eng won by 1 wkt
61*	9^th	Jeff Dujon	Winston Benjamin	WI	Pak	Bridgetown	27 Apr 1988	WI won by 2 wkts
57*	10^th	Inzamam-ul-Haq	Mushtaq Ahmed	Pak	Aus	Karachi	2 Oct 1994	Pak won by 1 wkt
56*	9^th	Tibby Cotter	Gerry Hazlitt	Aus	Eng	Sydney	19 Dec 1907	Aus won by 2 wkts
55*	9^th	Pat Cummins	Nathan Lyon	Aus	Eng	Birmingham	20 Jun 2023	Aus won by 2 wkts

26 The number of consecutive innings where the England bowlers could dismiss their opponents since 2022. However, Australia’s victory in Birmingham by two wickets meant that the English bowlers could not extend this sequence. In Test cricket history, England’s recent effort occupies the joint-third position for sides bowling out the opposition in most consecutive innings.

Test bowling sides dismissing opponents in most consecutive innings.

Inns	Opponent	From	To	Opponents involved (number of occasions)
59	England	21 Mar 1885	18 Jul 1896	Aus (47), SA (12)
33	Australia	14 Oct 1999	12 Mar 2001	Zim (2), Pak (6), Ind (9), NZ (6), WI (10)
26	England	1 Jun 1978	2 Aug 1979	Pak (5), NZ, (6), Aus (12), Ind (3)
26	England	2 Jun 2022	18 Jun 2023	NZ (10), Ind (2), SA (5), Pak (6), Ire (2), Aus (1)
25	South Africa	6 Aug 2017	21 Jul 2018	Eng (2), Ban (4), Zim (2), Ind (6), Aus (8), SL (3)

All records are correct and updated until 27 June 2023

Statsman: Usman Khawaja’s unique feat, Stokes’ early declaration and more
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Khawaja becomes the 13th player to have faced atleast one ball on each of the five days of a Test match.

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