That’s Numberwang! Oh Jimmy, Jimmy plus Williamson and WTC formalities

Couple of Boxing Day Tests provide the material for this week’s stats round-up. Here are this week’s Big Numbers.

92 – Opening stand between Rory Burns and Dom Sibley in the second innings at Centurion, England’s final and highest opening stand of the year

16/12/2016 – The date of England’s last 100-run stand for the opening wicket in Test cricket

13 – 100-run stands for England’s opening wicket in ODI cricket since December 16 2016

150 – Test caps for James Anderson, the first specialist bowler of any kind to reach that landmark

89 – James Anderson’s world record number of not outs in Test cricket after two more at Centurion. He’s now an astonishing 28 not outs clear of his nearest challenger and fellow batting champion, Courtney Walsh.

33 – James Anderson’s world record number of 0 not outs in Test cricket after two more at Centurion. He’s now an astonishing five 0 not outs clear of his nearest challenger and fellow batting champion, Chris Martin.

2 – Total wickets taken by James Anderson in his opening over of each South Africa innings at Centurion.

0 – Total wickets taken by James Anderson in his other 31 overs at Centurion

4 – Number of Englishmen who have taken a wicket with the first ball of a Test: Anderson sits alongside Maurice Tate, Geoff Arnold (who did it twice) and Ryan Sidebottom on the list.

14.25 – Kane Williamson’s current batting average in the Australia series

11.57 – Kane Williamson’s current batting average in the World Test Championship

8 – Total Test runs scored by Stuart Broad this week

6 – Test runs scored by Stuart Broad in England’s second innings at Centurion, his third highest score away from home in the last two years

10.25 – Percentage of Tests in 2019 that were drawn (four out of 39). It’s the lowest percentage for a calendar year since the infamous Drawless Year of 1932. There were only seven Tests in 1932, mind. And four of those seven were timeless Tests.

11 – Number of England players to fall ill in South Africa since the start of their tour, Dom Sibley completing a full playing XI and relegating Graham Thorpe back to coaching duties

29.17 – Percentage of the 2019-2021 World Test Championship League Stage that has been played thus far

100 – Percentage chance (rounded up very, very slightly) of the 2019-2021 World Test Championship final being between India and Australia. Also: percentage of Tom Blundell’s 272 Test runs to have been scored in the month of December. Also also: percentage of Tom Blundell’s Tests to have been played in the month of December

68.00 – Tom Blundell’s Test batting average after his 121 against Australia at the MCG

2 years, 17 days – Time between Tom Blundell’s second Test cap and his third