England VS. South Africa Third Test Highlights, The Oval

After a long period without Test cricket, it was nice to see games being played in both Pakistan and Australia recently.

Australia's Test against West Indies at Perth saw the home side record the seventeenth occasion of two double-centurions in the same innings, Steven Smith recording his fourth 200 and Marnus Labuschagne his second. Labuschagne would also add a further century in the second innings and thereby become only the seventh player - and third Australian after Greg Chappell and Doug Walters - to achieve the feat. Travis Head suffered the misfortune of becoming the sixth player at Perth - but the first at the Perth Stadium - to be dismissed for 99 in a Test.

Although both West Indian openers performed creditably and Kraigg Brathwaite became the fourth West Indian captain to score a century at Perth (but the first at Perth Stadium), it was the hosts who were the comfortable victors by 164 runs.

England played in Pakistan for the first time since 2005 and highlights of the First Test, at Rawalpindi, are given below.

PAKISTAN VS. ENGLAND AT RAWALPINDI, FIRST TEST

England's first-day total of 506 for 4 is the highest by any team on the opening day of a Test. The previous highest was Australia's 494 for 6 against South Africa at Sydney in 1910-11. It is worth noting that England's total was made from just 75 overs.
For the third time in their Test history, England had four centurions in an innings. The previous occasions were against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1938 and against West Indies at Lord's in 2007.
For the third time in their Test history, England's first three all made centuries. The other two occasions were against South Africa at Lord's in 1924 and against Australia at Brisbane in 2010-11.
Zak Crawley's feat in scoring 492 runs (average 123) in his first three Tests against Pakistan places him as the third-heaviest scorer behind Sir Garfield Sobers (549 runs in 4 innings, average 183) and Sanjay Manjrekar (493 runs in 5 innings, average 123.25) at the same point of their respective careers against Pakistan. Previously, the record by an England player was Paul Collingwood (378 runs in 6 innings, average 63).
Ollie Pope became the first England wicket-keeper to score a Test century in Pakistan. The previous best was Alan Knott's unbeaten 96 at Karachi in 1968-69, a match which finished when a riot took place.
Harry Brook's maiden Test century included the most runs scored by an England player in one over (27), surpassing Sir Ian Botham's 24 against New Zealand at The Oval in 1986. He had also hit 24 from another over in the same innings.
Brook's 153 included 106 in boundaries, an average percentage of 69.28% of his runs. This places him fifth highest of all England players who have scored 150 or more in an innings.
The 95 boundaries in the England innings (86 fours and nine sixes) is the joint-fifth highest in any Test. The most is 111 (109 fours and two sixes) by Sri Lanka against India at Colombo (RPS) in 1997-98. The runs scored in boundaries (398) is second highest.
The opening stand of 233 between Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett is England's highest against Pakistan for the first wicket. The previous best was 198 between Geoff Pullar and Bob Barber at Dhaka in 1961-62.
The said partnership saw the fourteenth time that both England openers recorded centuries in the same innings. It is, though, the first such occasion for England against Pakistan.
The England innings saw the seventh occasion of two England players both making their maiden Test century in the same innings. The match saw the twelfth such occasion for England of two players recording maiden centuries in the same match (including the seven mentioned above).
Zahid Mahmood's figures (33-1-235-4) are the most expensive in a debut innings surpassing Suraj Randiv's 2 for 222 for Sri Lanka against India at Colombo (SSC) in 2010. Based on a player's debut day (i.e. first day of a Test), Zahid's first-day figures of 23-1-160-2 are also the most expensive return overtaking Jason Krezja's (28-1-138-3) for Australia against India at Nagpur in 2008-09.
Zahid did, however, become the sixteenth Pakistan player to take four wickets in a debut innings.
Zahid's match analysis of six for 319 is the second most expensive on debut, behind Krezja's 12 for 358 mentioned above.
England's 657 is the highest total at Rawalpindi's Cricket Stadium. The previous highest was India's 600 in 2003-04. This ground is different to Rawalpindi's Pindi CC ground which was used for one Test in 1964-65.
The Test saw the first instance of both teams recording an opening stand of 200 or more.
The Pakistani first innings saw their eighteenth occasion of three centurions in the same innings. Pakistan and Australia share the record of most centuries in one innings (5).
The partnership between Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq of 225 is the highest opening stand for Pakistan against England surpassing the 173 between Mohsin Khan and Shoaib Mohammad at Lahore in 1983-84.
Also for the first time in a Test, both sets of openers on both sides recorded centuries.
The Test saw the ninth occasion of seven (or more) centuries being scored in one match. The record is eight (Sri Lanka vs. Bangladesh at Galle in 2012-13 and West Indies and South Africa at St. John's, Antigua in 2004-05). It is also the most in a Test played in Pakistan overtaking the six made on two occasions (Pakistan vs. India at Lahore in 2005-06 and, in the very next Test between the same sides, at Faisalabad).
The aggregate of both team's first-innings scores (1236) is the seventh-highest in all Tests. There have been 11 occasions of both teams making 575 or more in the first innings of the same Test and the highest aggregate (1409) was between Pakistan (765-6) against Sri Lanka (644-7) at Karachi in 2008-09.
Duckett became the sixth England player to record a century in one innings of a Test and a first-ball duck in the other. This is based on Tests where there are known figures for balls faced. For England, there have been 35 instances of players recording a century and a duck within the same Test.
Will Jacks's first innings debut figures (6-161) represent the eleventh most successful by an England player but are also the fourth most expensive. John Lever's 7-46 against India at Delhi in 1976-77 are England's best whilst Mason Crane's 1-193 against Australia at Sydney in 2017-18 are the most expensive.
The 405 runs conceded by England's slow bowlers in Pakistan's first innings is their third-highest number against all opposition, the highest being 484 against India at Chennai in 2016-17. For all countries, this figure is nineteenth highest: the record number is 700 by India against Sri Lanka (952-6) at Colombo (RPS) in 1997-98.
There have now been 46 occasions in which an England player has scored 100 in the first innings of a Test and 50 (but not a century) in the second innings after the performances in this match of Crawley and Brook. However, of this number, only four have been against Pakistan. Strangely, the two other occasions were also made in the same Test: Sir Alastair Cook and Joe Root both did so at Old Trafford in 2016.
Brook became only the ninth England player to score more than 150 in the first innings of a match and more than 50 (but not a hundred) in the second.
Brook's match aggregate of runs (240) is the fifth highest for England against Pakistan. Joe Root (325 at Old Trafford in 2016) leads the way. Brook's aggregate is, though, the highest by an England player in Pakistan and is also the thirteenth-highest by a player of any country in Paistan.
The match aggregate of 1768 runs is the highest between England and Pakistan overtaking the 1553 made at Headingley in 2006.
England's 542 runs scored in boundaries in the Test is the third highest by any country in one Test. Pakistan hold the record with 616 against India at Faisalabad in 2005-06 whilst England's match against New Zealand earlier this year at Trent Bridge saw them score 544 in boundaries.
The total number of boundaries scored in the Test (246, 220 4s and 26 6s) is the second highest in a Test behind only the England and New Zealand Test at Trent Bridge in 2022 (249, 225 4s and 24 6s).
The total runs scored in boundaries in the Test (1036) is also the second highest in a Test behind only the England and New Zealand Test mentioned above which recorded 1044 in boundaries.
Pakistan's 579 is the highest, second-match-innings of a Test in a losing cause. The previous highest was also by Pakistan, against Australia at Melbourne in 1972-73, when they made 574 for 8.
England's win is only their third in 25 Tests in Pakistan.
Pope became the fifteenth wicket-keeper to record a century and make six or more wicket-keeping dismissals. He is the fourth England wicket-keeper to achieve the feat after Jonny Bairstow, Ben Foakes and Matt Prior. Pope is the first visiting wicket-keeper to do so in Pakistan.