Like father, like son

Benedict Bermange has all the stats you need from the first Test at Lord's, including a Kiwi family affair.

Sky Sports' cricket stats man Benedict Bermange has teamed up with skysports.com to bring you statistical highlights from our cricket coverage of the past week. The glorious game will be brought to you in numbers every week as Benedict unearths relevant historical facts that have arisen from the past seven days in the world of cricket. He will also be on hand to answer your statistical cricketing questions, be it about an existing record, player, team, ground, umpire, laws of the game or whatever your query may be. If something has been puzzling you, or you have come across a fact or stat during Sky Sports' cricket coverage that you must have verified to cure your insanity, then ask Benedict. Or if you've been stumped by a quiz question down the local, just email Benedict here or fill out the comment form at the bottom of the page and he will answer your questions.

Keep it in the family

Aaron Redmond joined his father Rodney as the seventh father/son combination to play Test cricket for New Zealand. The others are: Mac and Robert Anderson
Wynne and Grant Bradburn
Lance and Chris Cairns
Zin and Chris Harris
Giff and Graham Vivian
Walter and Dayle & Richard Hadlee The Redmonds played Test cricket 35 years 88 days apart. This is the second-longest interval between a father and son, only surpassed by Charlie and David Townsend of England's 35 years 161 days from 1899 to 1935. The shortest interval is held by Lance and Chris Cairns - only 3 years 359 days from Lance's final match to Chris's debut. However, while Aaron was out for a duck in this first Test innings, father Rodney scored 107. This is the largest difference in runs between a father and a son in their first Test innings. The previous record difference was 89 between the Nawab of Pataudi senior (102) and junior (13).

Opening gambits

Since the Trent Bridge Test of 2004, when Mark Richardson and Stephen Fleming added 163 and 94 for the first wicket, New Zealand have gone 46 innings without a century stand for the first wicket. They have tried 14 different pairs in that time, with an average partnership of 22. However, Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook achieved their first century opening partnership at the 28th attempt. Their previous best together was 95 achieved on Cook's debut in Nagpur in March 2006.

Nineties fashion

Brendon McCullum became the fifth batsman to make two scores in the 90s at Lord's, after Frank Woolley (who achieved both of his in the same Test), Tony Greig, Ken Barrington and Robin Smith. However, perhaps he can rest easy as all the other four did make centuries at Headquarters. Michael Vaughan scored his sixth Test century at Lord's, equalling Graham Gooch's record. Allan Lamb scored four centuries there, and among current players, Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen have three apiece. It was his eighteenth Test century and - unlike Brendon McCullum - he has never been dismissed in the nineties. Here are the only Test batsmen who have 100% conversion rates from 90 to 100 with at least ten Test centuries.

NAME	COUNTRY	90s	100s
Don Bradman	Australia	29	29
Michael Vaughan	England	18	18
Ian Botham	England	14	14
Ijaz Ahmed	Pakistan	12	12
Polly Umrigar	India	12	12

Daniel's day

Daniel Vettori became the first overseas captain to have his name inscribed on the Lord's bowling honours board. In fact, only two England captains have achieved the feat. Bob Willis took six for 101 against India in 1982, and Gubby Allen took five for 35 and five for 43 against the same opposition in 1936. When he dismissed Michael Vaughan, Vettori took his 250th Test wicket in his 81st Test. Only Richard Hadlee among Kiwis has reached that landmark. However, no bowler took as many Tests as Vettori to reach 250 wickets - the previous slowest was Chaminda Vaas who took 77. For comparison, here are the five fastest in terms of Tests:

NAME	COUNTRY	MATCHES
Dennis Lillee	Australia	48
Allan Donald	South Africa	50
Muttiah Muralitharan	Sri Lanka	51
Waqar Younis	Pakistan	51
Malcolm Marshall	West Indies	53
Richard Hadlee	New Zealand	53

England last won a Lord's Test when they beat Bangladesh in May 2005, so they have now gone six matches without a win there. Their only longer fruitless streak here was from 1984 to 1988 when they went seven matches without a win.

Some county highlights...

The partnership of 222 between Chris Taylor and Steve Snell was a new record for Gloucestershire's sixth wicket against Worcestershire surpassing the unbeaten 135 added by Jack Crapp and Andy Wilson at Gloucester in 1948. When he trapped Derbyshire's Jake Needham leg before, Robert Croft took his 900th first-class wicket for Glamorgan. He is just the sixth bowler to take that many wickets for the Welsh county, the others are as follows:

NAME	YEAR	MATHCES	WICKETS
Don Shepherd	1950-1972	647	2174
Jack Mercer	1922-1939	412	1460
Johnnie Clay	1921-1949	358	1292
Malcolm Nash	1966-1983	335	991
Frank Ryan	1922-1931	215	913

It was also a memorable game for team-mate Michael Powell. He achieved the landmark of 10,000 first-class runs when he reached 9 in his innings of 48, and took his 100th first-class catch when he caught Dominic Telo.

Benedict answers your questions...

Hi Benedict. I'm a big cricket fan and I'm so excited the Test summer has started. I saw that Michael Vaughan equalled Graham Gooch's record for centuries at Lord's, but that got me thinking - which England captain has scored the most centuries overall? I reckon it's probably Vaughan. I'd also be interested to know which captain of any international Test team in history has the most centuries. Thanks, I love reading your column. Rachel Tuft BENEDICT REPLIES: Six men have scored at least six centuries while captain of England, and Michael Vaughan is indeed one of them. Currently, he is only two behind leader Graham Gooch.

NAME	100s
Graham Gooch	11
Peter May	10
Michael Vaughan	9
Michael Atherton	8
Colin Cowdrey	6
David Gower	6

As for all international captains, he has a fair way to go to catch the two leaders, although the top spot may be about to change hands with Ricky Ponting just one behind fellow Australians Steve Waugh and Allan Border.

NAME	TEAM	100s
Steve Waugh	Australia	15
Allan Border	Australia	15
Don Bradman	Australia	14
Ricky Ponting	Australia	14
Brian Lara	West Indies	14
Clive Lloyd	West Indies	14

Benedict, I noticed KP getting out leg before in the first Test, and it seems to me that he is prone to LBW. Can you tell me how many times he has been given out in this method of dismissal in his Test career, and if possible, which batsman past or present has been outted LBW the most? Thanks, Jay Patel, Leicester BENEDICT REPLIES: Kevin Pietersen has been dismissed 67 times in his Test career, as follows:

HOW OUT	TIMES	%
bowled	9	13.43
caught keeper	12	17.91
caught fielder	30	44.77
lbw	12	17.91
run out	2	2.98
stumped	1	1.49
hit wicket	1	1.49

In terms of the batsman most frequently dismissed LBW in Tests, the leaders of those who have been dismissed at least 50 times are as follows:

NAME	TEAM	TIMES OUT	LBW	%
Dion Ebrahim	Zimbabwe	54	17	31.48
Daren Ganga	West Indies	84	25	29.76
Basil Butcher	West Indies	72	21	29.16
Roshan Mahanama	Sri Lanka	88	25	28.40
Craig McMillan	New Zealand	81	23	28.39

Graham Gooch was dismissed LBW fifty times in his Test career, more than any other batsman, but this is only 23.92% of all his dismissals.