England vs India 2014 - 1st Test, Day 3: Facts and figures

Virat Kohli couldn’t hang on to a tough chance at leg slip off Ravindra Jadeja (not in pic)

The left-right combination of Gary Ballance and Sam Robson resuming from the overnight score of 43 for one and batted very patiently to keep India afloat on the first hour of the morning. The duo batted at a very slow rate and survived some edges that failed to carry. Ishant Sharma managed to hit the gloves of Robson once, and was turned down on a leg-before appeal. Virat Kohli spilled a tough chance off the spinner Ravindra Jadeja at leg slip, but, the pair hung in and made sure England end the session without losing a wicket at lunch.

Ballance after initial watchful play took advantage of the semi-new ball and a placid pitch to stroke some good boundaries in the pre-lunch session. Ishant Sharma’s brilliant spell and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar’s timely wickets handed India the adantage but the last wicket pair ruined the plans once again. Joe Root and James Anderson were unbeaten with England trailing by 105 runs with one wicket remaining.

Here are some of the facts of the game in numbers.

• 61.27 – Ishant Sharma’s average in England after the first session. It improved to 53.5 by the close of play. This is his 5th Test match.
• 1 – Ballance’s century against Sri Lanka last month is the first century for an England No.3 in last 30 innings.
• 2, 3, 2, 4 and 0 – Number of Test matches Robson, Ballance, Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes have played before this Test and not one among them were born in England.
• 1 and 2 – First and second Test fifties for Robson and Ballance – both have a century to their credit.
• 52 – Number of balls Robson faced, scoring his fifty from 40.
• 125 – Runs added for the 2nd wicket. This is the second highest partnership for the 2nd wicket for England since the first Ashes Test in Australia.
• 59 – Number of runs both the batsmen were on at the time of lunch.
• 5 – This is the fifth straight Test match, in which England raised a 50+ partnership for the second wicket at Trent Bridge.
• 0 – None of England’s current batsmen averaged more than 40 at Trent Bridge before this Test. Stuart Broad comes the closest with 39.12.
• 600 – Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s number of dismissals in international cricket across all three formats after Ben Stokes’ catch. This was also his 50^th dismissal in Europe (46 in England, 2 in Ireland and 2 in Scotland) and 100^th dismissal when batting first in Tests.
• 3 – Number of incidents when the last wicket pair of each team scored more than 50 runs in their first innings, including the ongoing one.
• 7 – Number of times the 10^th wicket pair of England scored more than 50 runs in a Test including the partnership between Anderson and Root. The record for England’s highest 10^th wicket partnership Vs India belongs to Paul Allott and Bob Willis, who raised 70 at Lord’s in 1982.