Stats - A marathon stand, and Bairstow's dream year
All the key numbers from England's record chase against India at Edgbaston
Sampath Bandarupalli
05-Jul-2022
Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow were involved in a marathon 269-run stand • Getty Images
England chased down 378 against India at Edgbaston, that too at a scoring rate of 4.93. It was all pretty incredible, and the numbers below tell you exactly how much.
A record chase
378 - Target chased down by England, their highest successful chase in Tests. Their previous best was 359, against Australia in the 2019 Ashes Test at Headingley.
1 - England posted the highest chase by any team against India in Tests. Australia's 339-run chase in the 1977 Perth Test was the previous highest against India. The 378-run chase is also the second-highest by any team in England, behind Australia's 404 in 1948.
1 - Number of fourth-innings total against India in Tests that are higher than the 378 for 3 by England at Edgbaston. South Africa made 450 for 7 in pursuit of a 458-run target in the 2013 Johannesburg Test. It is also the fourth-highest total for England in the fourth innings of a Test.
4 - Successful 250-plus run chases in 2022 for England. They have now become the first team to complete four successful chases of 250-plus targets in a calendar year. Australia had three such wins in 2006, while four other teams have won two each, including England in 2004.
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Scoring them quickly
4.93 - England's run rate in the chase, the third-highest for any team involved in a successful 300-plus chase in Test cricket. Pakistan scored at a run rate of 5.25 to chase down a target of 302 against Sri Lanka in 2014, while West Indies hunted down 342 against England in the 1984 Lord's Test at 5.19 runs an over.
4.34 - Scoring rate in the Edgbaston Test, the fourth-highest for a completed Test match. Edgbaston has played host to three of the top-six results in the list of completed Tests with the highest scoring rates.
A partnership for the ages
269* - The partnership between Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow. This is the fourth-highest stand for any wicket in the fourth innings of a Test match. It is also the highest partnership for the fourth (or lower) wicket, surpassing the 251-run fourth-wicket stand by Australia's Graeme Wood and Craig Serjeant against West Indies in 1978.
1 - The partnership between Root and Bairstow is the highest in the fourth innings of a Test match against India, surpassing the 216-run stand between Sri Lanka's Roy Dias and Duleep Mendis in the 1985 Kandy Test. It is also the second-highest stand for England in the fourth innings behind the 280-run partnership between Paul Gibb and Bill Edrich in 1939 against South Africa.
1 - Root and Bairstow became the first England pair to score hundreds in a successful fourth-innings chase in Test cricket. There have been 11 previous instances of twin centurions in a successful chase in Tests, with the last one by Pakistan in 2015 against Sri Lanka in Pallekele.
2 - Hundreds for Root and Bairstow in successful chases, both in the ongoing home summer. No other England batter has more than one century in a successful fourth-innings chase in Test cricket.
Bairsball!
2008 - Last instance of a player scoring centuries for England in both innings of a Test match - Andrew Strauss in 2008 against India in Chennai.
2 - Bairstow became only the second England batter with twin hundreds while batting at No. 5 or lower in Test cricket. Denis Compton scored 147 and 103* against Australia in the 1947 Adelaide Test while batting at No. 5.
6 - Hundreds for Bairstow in Tests in 2022, the most by a player while batting at No. 5 or lower in a calendar year, surpassing Michael Clarke's five hundreds in 2012. Bairstow's six Test centuries is the joint-most by an England batter in a calendar year.
Root's favourite opponents
9 - Number of centuries for Root in Tests against India, the most by any batter against India. Garry Sobers, Viv Richards, Ricky Ponting and Steven Smith are all at second with eight hundreds each against India.
737 - Number of runs by Root in the series, the second-most for England in a series against India, behind Graham Gooch's 752 in 1990. His 737 runs are the fifth-highest for an England batter in a bilateral Test series and the fifth-most runs for a batter in a series against India.
333 - Difference in runs between Root and Bairstow in this series, the joint-third highest between the top two run-getters of a Test series since 1940. Smith led Ben Stokes by exactly 333 runs during the 2019 Ashes series in England.
Sampath Bandarupalli is a statistician at ESPNcricinfo