Stats Analysis

Bairstow and Anderson take centrestage

Stats highlights from England's convincing 2-0 series win against Sri Lanka

S Rajesh
S Rajesh
14-Jun-2016
Pace attacks of England and Sri Lanka in the Test series, June 14, 2016

A key reason for England's comfortable series win was the degree by which their pace attack outperformed Sri Lanka's  •  ESPNcricinfo Ltd

41.21 England's batting average in the series, which was 82.5% better than Sri Lanka's average of 22.58. England's batsmen passed 50 once every five innings on average, compared to Sri Lanka's average of once in 8.3 innings.
England and Sri Lanka in the series
Team Runs scored Wkts taken Bat ave 100s/ 50s Inngs/50+ score
England 1525 51 41.21 3/ 6 5.00
Sri Lanka 1152 37 2258 1/ 6 8.29
603 Runs scored by England's Nos. 6 and 7 batsmen in the series, at an average of 120.60. All three centuries for England in the series came from those two positions - two from Jonny Bairstow and one from Moeen Ali. For the top five positions, England's average was only 32.33, though Sri Lanka did even worse at 25.38.
  Nos. 1-5 Nos. 6 & 7
  Runs Average 100s/ 50s Runs Average 100s/ 50s
England 679 32.33 0/ 5 603 120.60 3/ 0
Sri Lanka 660 25.83 0/ 5 283 28.30 1/ 0
355 Runs scored by Bairstow when batting at No. 6 or 7, out of his overall series tally of 387. It is the most runs scored by any England batsman when batting at No. 6 or lower, in a series of three or fewer Tests. The earlier record was 311, by Matt Prior on England's tour to New Zealand in 2012-13. Overall, only six batsmen have scored more, with the highest being Adam Gilchrist's 473 in South Africa in 2001-02.
4 Fifty-plus stands for England's sixth wicket in the series, in as many partnerships; in four innings, their partnerships were 141, 70, 63, and 82. This is the first instance of four 50-plus stands for England's sixth wicket in a series of three or fewer Tests.
18.44 The collective average for England's fast bowlers - they took 49 wickets, at a strike rate of 38.2, which was better than the bowling average for Sri Lanka's seamers (41.00).
99.50 Bowling average for England's spinners - Moeen took 2 for 180 while Joe Root had 0 for 19, giving the spinners combined figures of 2 for 199. Sri Lanka's spinners averaged 37.50, with Rangana Herath taking seven of their ten wickets.
Pace and spin for England and Sri Lanka
  Pace Spin
  Wickets Average Strike rate Wickets Average Strike rate
England 49 18.44 38.2 2 99.50 154.0
Sri Lanka 27 41.00 71.9 10 37.50 73.1
21 Wickets for James Anderson alone, the joint second best by an England bowler in a series in which he played three or fewer Tests since 1980. Only Ryan Sidebottom, with 24 wickets in New Zealand in 2007-08, has more.
10.80 Anderson's bowling average, fourth best since 1970 for a bowler who has bowled in at least five innings in a series. Only Muttiah Muralitharan (9.80 versus Zimbabwe in 2001-02), Richard Hadlee (10 versus Sri Lanka in 1983-84) and Mudassar Nazar (10.40 versus England in 1982) have done better.
10 Wickets for Nuwan Pradeep, the third best for a Sri Lankan bowler in a series (more than one Test) in England. Only Muttiah Muralitharan (24 wickets in 2006) and Shaminda Eranga (11 in 2014) have taken more wickets in a series in England. (This excludes Muralitharan's 16 wickets in the one-off Test in 1998.)

S Rajesh is stats editor of ESPNcricinfo. @rajeshstats