Sunday 8 November 2015 13:47, UK
With another English summer over and the kit bags loaded into storage for the winter, here are a few quirky stats I noticed from watching cricket this summer:
- The highest individual score of the season was made by - who else - Kevin Pietersen. His unbeaten 355 for Surrey against Leicestershire at The Oval not only came on the very day he was told by Director of England Cricket Andrew Strauss that he no longer featured in England's plans, but it ended just two runs short of the ground record set by Bobby Abel back in 1899. He shared a partnership of 139 for the tenth wicket with Matt Dunn whose contribution was just five!
- Stuart Broad set a host of records on the first day of the Nottingham Test. He became the first bowler to take eight wickets before lunch on the first day of a Test. He also became just the third bowler to take as many as eight wickets in a Test session and he took his fifth wicket with his 19th delivery, equalling the Test record set by Ernie Toshack for Australia against India at Brisbane in 1947.
- Australia's first innings at Nottingham lasted just 111 deliveries, the shortest all-out first innings of a Test Match in history. Extras top-scored with 14, the first time in Ashes history that extras has top-scored in an innings.
- Oliver Robinson made his first-class debut for Sussex against Durham at the Riverside in April. Batting at number nine he scored 110, sharing in an extraordinary tenth wicket partnership of 164 with number 11 Matt Hobden who made an unbeaten 65. Robinson became the first player to ever score a century at number nine on his first-class debut in the County Championship.
- Essex's Daniel Lawrence scored a century against Surrey at The Oval at the age of just 17 years 290 days, the third-youngest championship centurion in history - the youngest being Godfrey Bryan for Kent against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in 1920.
- Eight of New Zealand's batsmen in their second innings at Leeds hit at least one six, setting a new Test record. They declared with eight wickets down, so poor Trent Boult didn't even have an opportunity to add to the record.
- Leicestershire finally won a County Championship match after 37 win-less matches in a row. However, they were a long way from the record as Northamptonshire were without a win for 99 successive matches from 1935-1939.
- Despite slumping to 0-3 in their first innings against Kent at Canterbury, Derbyshire came back to win the match by eight wickets, thereby becoming the first team since 1989 to win a championship match despite losing their first three wickets in an innings for 0.
- Graham Wagg became just the second number eight batsman to score a Championship double hundred when he smashed 200 for Glamorgan against Surrey at Guildford. Dominic Cork managed an unbeaten 200 for Derbyshire against Durham in 2000.
- Alviro Petersen (286) and Ashwell Prince (261) added 501 together for Lancashire's third wicket against Glamorgan at Aberystwyth. This is the highest partnership ever by two South African batsmen and also the highest in first-class history where neither managed to score a triple-century.
- Gareth Batty ended Surrey's victory over Derbyshire by taking a hat-trick at The Oval. This was the first instance of a captain winning a match with a hat-trick in English first-class cricket.
- The Worcestershire v Northants Royal London One Day Cup match at Worcester on 2 August started astonishingly with Joe Leach taking a hat-trick with the first three balls of the match - the first time that had ever happened in one-day cricket in England and just the second time anywhere in the world, after Chaminda Vaas started Sri Lanka's World Cup match against Bangladesh at Pietermaritzburg in 2003 the same way.
- Mark Wallace missed Glamorgan's final Championship match of the season due to a torn calf muscle. He had played 230 consecutive matches in the competition dating back to June 13, 2001 when he was a late call-up to replace the unwell Adrian Shaw behind the stumps in Glamorgan's match against Kent at Maidstone. The record is held by Ken Suttle who played 423 in a row for Sussex between 1954 and 1969.
- Jade Dernbach became the third bowler to take a hat-trick in a Lord's final, after Ken Higgs for Leicestershire against Surrey in 1974 and James Averis for Gloucestershire against Worcestershire in 2004.
- England's sequence of Win, Loss, Win, Loss, Win, Loss, Win from Grenada to Birmingham is the longest alternating sequence of wins and losses in Test history. Australia went WLWLWL from Perth in 1979 to Karachi in 1980 and the West Indies went WLWLWL from Port-of-Spain to Manchester in 1995.
- England's teams at Nottingham and The Oval had just 53 letters in their combined surnames, breaking Australia's 55-letter record at Faisalabad in 1988.
