STATS HIGHLIGHTS
Follow UsOn an enthralling day of cricket on day four, thankfully the rain stayed away. India were early to breakthrough as Rory Burns edged one of Siraj. Zak Crawley’s poor run of form continued as he succumbed to another single digit score. But, Dom Sibley and Joe Root resurrected the innings with an 89-run partnership for the third wicket. The best part about England’s batting was, the rest all partnerships till the eighth wicket made small contributions as Root anchored one end and scored a magnificent century.
Thanks to the skippers' 21st ton, England scored 303 and gained a lead of 208. For India, Jasprit Bumrah bagged his sixth five-for in Tests. In reply, a confident KL Rahul was running away with some eye-catching drives before he got a peach from Stuart Broad. India have negated 14 overs at the end and are looking as the strong favorites. Root and Bumrah took the limelight with some record-breaking stints. Here is a look at few of notable stats from day four:
Joe Root races to 1000 runs
The England skipper had three years of average cricket, but has bounced back strongly in 2021. In just 18 innings, the skipper has reached the 1000-run mark in the calendar year. The last time he hit over 1k runs in a was in 2016, which certainly meant this was a long time coming. Root started off the year 2021 with two double centuries and a 180+ score. Now, after 219 days from the start of 2021, Root became the second quickest England batsman to hit 1000 runs in a year in terms of days.
A rare captain’s feat
Root looked threatening in the first innings as well. But, before making an impact he fell for a well-made 64. In the second innings, he didn’t miss out as he went on to register his 21st century in Tests. On the back of a ton in the second, Root became the second England captain to hit a 50+ and a century against India in the same match. Graham Gooch in 1990 at Lord’s is the other skipper. He was unstoppable in that match with a triple century backed by a century in the second innings.
Most international tons against India
It was a day that belonged to Root. Scoring twin 50+ scores, registering his 10th century as a captain, 21st century as an England player and the biggest of all his ninth international century against India. He went past Sir Alastair Cook’s tally of eight centuries. Also, he is now levelled with Cook and Michael Vaughn for the list of captains to score four twin 50+ scores. Gooch leads the list with five.
A century after a long time
Root is one of the greatest England cricketers and there is no element of doubt on it and the cricketing fraternity accepts it as well. But, in recent times, his batting at home was a concern. He used to get fifties but never used to convert it. His last century prior to this, came in 2018 against the same opponent at The Oval. Now, after 25 home innings he finally registered one. Interestingly, the 2018 century by Root was also the last one against India in the second innings. Post that, no batsman had scored a second innings century against India for 24 matches.
Bumrah on top after 21 matches
The Indian pace spearhead is back and back with bang. After a dismal performance in the ICC World Test Championship-1 finals, there were speculations, but those have been put to rest now with a nine-wicket haul in the match. Bumrah is deemed as one of the best pacers of the current generation because of his rapid growth. In his 21 matches he has bagged 92 wickets and that is the most for an Indian pacer in the first 21 games.
Indian pacers bagging all 20 wickets
In the day four preview we had mentioned how good Indian pace unit has been in the second innings. Not only in second innings, but overall as well they have been the best in Tests since 2018 in terms of average and strike rate. In the first innings all 10 wickets fell to the pacers and the attack was led by Bumrah with a four-wicket haul. Nothing changed in the second innings as well, except for the fact that Bumrah bettered it with a five-wicket haul. All 20 wickets in this match were bagged by the pacers, making this only the second instance in Tests. The first one was in 2018 at the New Wanderers, Johannesburg.
Indian bowlers enjoying the Nottingham surface
In every tour to England, India have played a match at Nottingham for most of the time and it has been a special venue for India. In the last three matches, the bowlers have had a great time. Since 2014, either one of India’s bowlers has bagged a five-wicket haul. In 2014, it was Bhuvneshwar Kumar (5/82), in 2018, Hardik Pandya (5/28) and Bumrah (5/85) and in this match Bumrah again with 5/64.
