That’s Numberwang! Cape Town, F***ing knobheads, Stokes and, yet again, Marnus
Very good week of cricket. Lots of very lovely numbers. Many of them in Cape Town. Some of them in Sydney. A couple in Bridgetown. Here are the very best of them from Stokes to Marnus via Warner and Anderson.
108.43 – Balls per wicket in South Africa’s second innings at Cape Town before Jos Buttler called Vernon Philander a fucking knobhead
22.33 – Balls per wicket in South Africa’s second innings at Cape Town after Jos Buttler called Vernon Philander a fucking knobhead
104 – Test wickets taken by James Anderson since his 35th birthday
20.50 – James Anderson’s Test bowling average since his 35th birthday
28 – Five-wicket hauls for James Anderson in Test cricket, one more than previous England record-holder Ian Botham
7174 – Test runs for Ross Taylor, nudging past former New Zealand record-holder Stephen Fleming’s 7172
0.01 – Time, in seconds, it took all Australians after they woke up on Wednesday to tweet the J*s B***ler video with some variation of “If Tim Paine had said that to a Pom…”
786 – Test runs for David Warner this season, the most ever by an opener in a five-Test Australian summer
837 – Test runs for Marnus Labuschagne this season, the most ever by any batsman in a five-Test Australian summer
0 – Times a “five-Test Australian summer” had ever been mentioned before this week
2 – Marnus Labuschagne’s position in the highest all-time batting average list (with standard 1000-run qualifier) having leapfrogged Steve Smith to claim the Best Since Bradman mantle and demoting the legendary Adam Voges to fourth
3 – Number of the official four best Test batsmen in history to have played for Australia in the last five years
288 – Balls faced by Pieter Malan in the fourth innings at Cape Town. Only Faf du Plessis (376 in 2012) has faced more fourth-innings deliveries on debut
66.67 – Percentage of all Dominics to play Test cricket for England who were in the XI at Cape Town
100 – Percentage of all Zaks to play Test cricket for England who were in the XI at Cape Town
5 – Catches by Ben Stokes in South Africa’s first innings at Cape Town, equalling the record for a non-wicketkeeper. The last instance of a fielder taking five catches in a Test innings was also at Cape Town: Steve Smith in 2018, in what was easily the most memorable thing to happen in that match
[jwplayer Xyeqkf4W-yceS9uXa]
100.75 – Ben Stokes’ Test batting average at Cape Town
113.20 – Ben Stokes’ Test batting strike-rate at Cape Town
9.50 – David Warner’s World Test Championship batting average five matches
55.06 – David Warner’s World Test Championship batting average after 10 matches
400 – Total ODIs won by West Indies
1 – Narrower West Indies ODI wins than their 400th, a victory by one wicket with one ball remaining against Ireland
9 – Test runs for Stuart Broad this week
12 – Overseas Test innings since Stuart Broad reached double figures
644 – Days between Stuart Broad’s 128th and 129th overseas Test boundaries
73 – India T20Is between Sanju Samson’s first cap in 2015 and his second in 2020
