Stats

One of the reasons that watching cricket is fun for a nerd like me is that it is non stop unless facts, trivia and statistics. The game that finished today was a great example of that as we were bombarded by them:

- whatever happens in the final test next week, England will go to the top of the world rankings in test cricket, deposing India from top spot

- it was the first time ever that England have completed an innings in test cricket with a score between 700 and 800

- Cook scored his highest ever test match innings, obviously disappointed to fall 6 short of getting 300, but still he posted a total 6th on the leaderboard of all time top innings for an English batsman.

- the last man to score 300 for England was Graham Gooch in 1990 (against India) and Gooch was there today, and helps Cook and others in the England team with their batting

- we've now had 6 double centuries from England batsmen in the last 15 months. It took 15 years for English batsmen to manage the 6 before that

- the game lasted nearly 4 days, and Cook was on the field for every minute of play

- Anderson moved up another spot in the list of leading English wicket takers in test cricket, and is now 7th (Botham and Willis are 1 and 2)

- Tendulkar is still stuck on 99 first class centuries, getting out in a really unlucky way today, being run out backing up at the non strikers end after the ball was deflected by the bowler - first time that has happened to him in test cricket

- Sehwag had the unfortunate honour of achieving a King Pair - being out from his first ball in both innings - something that has only happened 15 times in test cricket

... and no doubt there are loads more from the last few days as well!