Spin doctors

Benedict's stats column features Monty and Vettori, Ricky Ponting's landmark and much more...

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.

Spin kings

The successes of Monty Panesar and Daniel Vettori at Old Trafford made that Test just the eleventh in which a slow left-arm bowler from each side had taken at least five wickets in an innings, and just the fourth to involve England: Eng v Aus, Sheffield, 1902
Wilfred Rhodes 5/63; Jack Saunders 5/43 Eng v WI, Manchester, 1950
Bob Berry 5/63; Alf Valentine 8/104 Ind v Eng, Madras, 1961-62
Salim Durani 6/105; Tony Lock 6/65 Eng v NZ, Manchester, 2008
Monty Panesar 6/37; Daniel Vettori 5/66 However, on two occasions, two England left-arm spinners have taken five wickets in an innings in the same Test match: Eng v Aus, Manchester, 1909
Charlie Blythe 5/63; Wilfred Rhodes 5/83 Eng v Ind, Madras, 1933-34
Hedley Verity 7/49; Jim Langridge 5/63

Hitting five figures

At Antigua, Ricky Ponting became the seventh player to reach 10,000 Test runs. He reached the landmark in his 196th innings, which makes him the third fastest in terms of innings:

NAME	INNS	100	50
Brian Lara	195	26	45
Sachin Tendulkar	195	34	40
Ricky Ponting	196	35	40
Rahul Dravid	206	25	51
Sunil Gavaskar	212	34	44
Allan Border	235	25	58
Steve Waugh	244	29	46

Meanwhile, Brett Lee took his ninth five-wicket haul in Test cricket. However, despite having claimed five wickets on this many occasions, he has never managed to claim a sixth in any of those innings. He is well ahead of the pack in terms of the most Test wickets taken without ever taking more than five in a single innings:

NAME	MATCHES	WICKETS	BB	5 WICKETS
Brett Lee	67	284	5-30	9
Andrew Flintoff	67	197	5-58	2
Zaheer Khan	53	170	5-29	5
Ravi Shastri	80	151	5-75	2
Merv Dillon	38	131	5-71	2

In addition, his nine "five-fors" are the most for anyone who has never taken more than that - next on that list is one of his opponents from Antigua - Fidel Edwards - with six.

County stats

The partnership of 258 between Paul Horton and Mohammad Yousuf at Leeds equalled Lancashire's record for any wicket against Yorkshire set last year by Horton and Stuart Law. However, Yousuf's partnership of 197 with Steven Croft did set a new record for Lancashire's fifth wicket against their Roses opponents, surpassing the 136 added by Frank Hayes and Bernard Reidy at Old Trafford in 1980. Luke Sutton made seven dismissals in the Yorkshire first innings, just the third time a Lancashire wicket-keeper had effected that many dismissals in an innings.

Name	Dis	Cts	Sts	Team	Against	Venue	Season
Bill Farrimond	7	6	1	Lancashire	Kent	Manchester	1930
Warren Hegg	7	7	0	Lancashire	Derbyshire	Chesterfield	1989
Luke Sutton	7	7	0	Lancashire	Yorkshire	Leeds	2008

Durham's victory over Sussex at Hove was the champions' first defeat at home since the last match of the 2004 season, when they lost to Surrey. In that match, Mushtaq Ahmed trapped Durham captain Dale Benkenstein leg before for 110 to take his 1,400th first-class wicket of his career.

Benedict answers your questions...

Dear Benedict, I was watching England vs New Zealand at Old Trafford. 15 wickets fell on day three. Can you tell me what's the most amount of wickets fallen in a day? Sukhman Cheema BENEDICT REPLIES: The record was set way back in 1888 when 27 wickets fell on day 2 of the Lord's Test between England and Australia. There have been eight instances of at least 22 wickets falling in a full day's play:

Team 1	Team 2	Day	Wickets	Ground	Match date
England	Australia	2	27	Lord's	16 Jul 1888
Australia	England	1	25	Melbourne	1 Jan 1902
England	Australia	2	24	The Oval	10 Aug 1896
England	Australia	1	22	The Oval	11 Aug 1890
Australia	West Indies	1	22	Adelaide	22 Dec 1951
England	India	3	22	Manchester	17 Jul 1952
Sri Lanka	England	3	22	Colombo (SSC)	15 Mar 2001
New Zealand	India	3	22	Hamilton	19 Dec 2002

Dear Benedict, Great blog, as usual. I would like to ask a question. Is Ross Taylor's score of 154 not out the highest score that someone has made and still end up on the losing side?? Regards, Joel BENEDICT REPLIES: In fact, Taylor's innings is nowhere near the Test record which is held by Australia's Ricky Ponting. He scored 242 against India at Adelaide in December 2003. However, Rahul Dravid countered with 233 and India won by four wickets. The top five scores in losing causes are as follows, so as you can see, Taylor's wasn't even a Kiwi record.

Score	Name	Team	Against	Venue	Season
242	Ricky Pontin	Australia	India	Adelaide	2003/04
226	Brian Lara	West Indies	Australia	Adelaide	2005/06
222	Nathan Astle	New Zealand	England	Christchurch	2001/02
221	Brian Lara	West Indies	Sri Lanka	Colombo-SSC	2001/02
214*	Victor Trumper	Australia	South Africa	Adelaide	1910/11

Hi Benedict, I love your stats (Frindall has nothing on you)!!! Anyway I wanted to find out: Who was the first player to score a test century for England? Thanks a lot for your time and reply... Simon Dewhurst BENEDICT REPLIES: The first Test century for England was scored by the immortal WG Grace, who scored 152 at The Oval in September 1880. It was the fourth Test ever played. Benedict, I would be interested to see where England's second test victory ranks in a list of Test match wins after the victorious side conceded a big first innings deficit. A couple of notable follow-on victories (Eng v Aus, Ind v Aus) spring to mind that would be higher on the list than this match, but can you produce a list of the biggest first innings deficits where teams have gone on to win, and where does England's second test win rank? Thanks, Nick Wells The victory at Old Trafford ranks ninth on the all-time list as below. Although it should be pointed out that the top one is the forfeiture at The Oval in 2006 and the Hansie Cronje forfeiture match also features in the top 10. BENEDICT REPLIES:

Deficit	Team	Totals1	Against	Totals2	Venue	Season	Result
331	Eng	173 & 298-4	Pak	504	The Oval	2006	won by default
331	Aus	256 & 471	SL	547-8* & 164	Colombo	1992/93	won by 16 runs
274	Ind	171 & 657-7*	Aus	445 & 212	Kolkata	2000/01	won by 171 runs
261	Eng	325 & 437	Aus	586 & 166	Sydney	1894/95	won by 10 runs
248	Eng	0-0* & 251-8	SA	248-8* & forf	Centurion	1999/00	won by 2 wickets
236	Aus	75 & 336-5	SA	311 & 99	Durban	1949/50	won by 5 wickets
227	Eng	174 & 356	Aus	401-9* & 111	Leeds	1981	won by 18 runs
182	Ind	237 & 324	Aus	419 & 83	Melbourne	1980/81	won by 59 runs
179	Eng	202 & 294-4	NZ	381 & 114	Manchester	2008	won by 6 wickets
177	Aus	190 & 432	Eng	367 & 201	Manchester	1961	won by 54 runs