Stats: New Zealand vs Sri Lanka, 1st Test Day One - McCullum equals AB de Villiers' record

McCullum’s blitz took the game away from Sri Lanka

Despite being put into bat, New Zealand ended day on of the first Test against Sri Lanka in command, thanks Martin Guptill’s 156 and fifties from Kane Williamson and Brendon McCullum. The hosts ended day one at Dunedin on 409/8.

Guptill, who scored only his third Test century fell after tea, when Sri Lanka finally managed to put the brakes on the scoring. Despite picking up six wickets after tea, Angelo Mathews is unlikely to be too happy with his bowlers after choosing to field.

Here are some of the statistical highlights from day one:

2 – Joe Root is the only player who has more 50+ scores in 2015 than Kane Williamson. Williamson has 19 scores of 50 or more in 42 innings, while Root has 20 such scores in 45 innings. Williamson is already the leading run-getter in international matches this year.

3 – This was only the third time New Zealand has scored 400+ on the opening day of a Test. Their best was against Zimbabwe in Harare, where they managed 452 for 9, while their 429 for 7 against Sri Lanka in Christchurch is the only other occasion, they managed more than 400 on the opening day.

5 – New Zealand’s run rate of 4.54 at the end of day one is their fifth-highest in the first innings of a Test. In the four previous occasions where they managed a run rate higher than 4.54, they have won all the matches.

6 – Martin Guptill was the joint sixth-slowest New Zealander to reach 2,000 Test runs. Daniel Vettori (96), Richard Hadlee (91), Adam Parore (83), Ken Rutherford (79) and Chris Cairns (73) are the players who took longer than Guptill’s 70 innings. John R Reid also managed the feat in 70 innings.

13 – Williamson’s 88 was the 13^th time he had scored more than 85 for New Zealand in 2015, which is the joint-most by any batsman in a calendar year. Aravinda de Silva (1997), Sachin Tendulkar (1998), Tillakaratne Dilshan (2009) and Hashim Amla (2010) are the other batsmen to have achieved this feat.

15 – This was the 15^th consecutive Test in New Zealand where the team that the toss decided to field first. The last team to bat first in New Zealand was the hosts against Pakistan in 200-11.

19 – Nobody has hit more sixes against Sri Lanka in Tests than Brendon McCullum, who has 19. The Kiwi skipper was joint-top with Navjot Sidhu on 18 before the start of the Test. His 19 sixes against Sri Lanka are also the most he has hit, against any opposition in Tests.

40 – The number of consecutive Test innings in which Martin Guptill failed to score a century before today. He last scored a Test century four years ago, against Zimbabwe in 2011. During the same period he has made seven ODI hundreds, including a double hundred.

78.67 – McCullum’s Test strike rate against Sri Lanka is 78.67, which is the second-highest by any batsman who has faced more than 500 balls. Virender Sehwag’s strike rate of 99.83 is the best by any batsman against Sri Lanka.

98 – The number of consecutive Tests played by Brendon McCullum since his debut in 2004, which equals AB de Villiers’ record of most consecutive Tests from debut.

173 – The second-wicket partnership between Kane Williamson and Guptill is the highest by a Kiwi pair for the second wicket, beating the 172-run partnership between Stephen Fleming and Mark Richardson at the P Sara Oval in Colombo.

1997 – Guptill’s 156 was the first time since 1997 a New Zealand opener made more than 150 in the first innings of a Test. Back in 1997, Bryan Young scored an uneaten 267 against the same opposition in the same city. It is also only the fifth time a Kiwi opener has achieved that feat and all of which have been against teams from the sub-continent (India thrice and Sri Lanka twice).