England spend 14 days in quarantine - and then lose the Ashes series in 12; Joe Root's side equal their record of 54 ducks from 1998 and match Bangladesh's record nine Test defeats in a year from 2003; tourists tumble to lowest score in Australia since 1904 after being razed for 68 at MCG
Tuesday 28 December 2021 15:13, UK
England's bid to regain The Ashes is over, with Joe Root's side tumbling 3-0 down in the five-match series against Australia following a Melbourne mauling. The stats make for grim reading, so read on if you dare...
England actually spent longer in quarantine upon entering Australia (14 days) than it look them to lose the Ashes series (12 days).
Joe Root ended 2021 with 1,708 Test runs, the third-most in Test history in a calendar year, behind only Pakistan's Mohammad Yousuf's tally of 1,788 in 2006 and West Indies legend Sir Vivian Richards' total of 1,710 in 1976.
Root scored 1,178 more runs this year than England's next highest-scorer Rory Burns (530). That set a new record for the biggest differential between the highest two run-scorers for a team in the same year...
Root top-scored 12 times for England this year, surpassing Graeme Smith's record of 11 times for South Africa in 2008.
Of all the players to have scored at least 1,000 runs in a calendar year, Root's 26.2 per cent of England's runs this year set a new mark, beating Garry Sobers' 25.5 per cent of the West Indies' runs in 1958.
Not only did England equal Bangladesh's all-time Test record of nine Test defeats in a single calendar year, set in 2003, they also equalled their own record of 54 ducks in Test cricket in a year, set in 1998.
England's second innings of 68 is the lowest in Ashes cricket in Australia since Australia were all out for 58 at Brisbane in 1936 and England's lowest in Australia since they were all out for 61 at Melbourne in 1904.
Scott Boland took only 19 deliveries to take his first five wickets in England's second innings.
The seamer equalled the Test record first set by Ernie Toshack for Australia against India at Brisbane in 1947 and equalled by Stuart Broad for England against Australia at Trent Bridge n 2015.
Boland conceded the joint second-fewest runs of any Test bowler taking at least six wickets in an innings:
Australia's 82-run first-innings lead is the third-lowest by a team going on to win a Test by an innings, while their total of 267 is the joint eighth-lowest to result in an innings victory in Test history.
It is also the lowest total conceded by any England team losing a Test by an innings.
The previous lowest was 284 which Australia made at Sydney in 1895.
