Benedict Bermange has the stats for the third Test, as Alastair Cook goes in search of records.
Benedict has some key pointers ahead of the third Test
Ahead of their first Test on the ground, I can tell you that England have played eight matches at the Rose Bowl, winning five and losing three.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka have previously played here twice, winning one (t20 v England in 2006) and losing the other (ODI v England in 2004).
England's 435 at Cardiff in 2009 is their highest ever first innings total on the
debut of one of their Test grounds, surpassing their 420 in The Oval's first Test back in 1888.
There have been 86 first-class matches at The Rose Bowl. In total, 72 captains have chosen to
bat first and only 14 to
bowl. We have seen 30 matches won by the team batting first and 21 by the team batting second with 35 draws.
The
wicket started off as a bowler's paradise, but since the start of 2008, only Taunton and the Oval of the 18 main county grounds have averaged more than the Rose Bowl's
35.89 runs per wicket.
This will be
Alastair Cook's 66th consecutive Test, breaking the England record jointly held by Alan Knott (1971-77) and Ian Botham (1978-84). The world record is Allan Border's 153 in a row from 1979 to 1994.
Cook needs to score fifty in the first innings to equal the England record of six
consecutive scores of fifty or more, jointly held by Patsy Hendren, Ted Dexter and Ken Barrington.
Cook was
stumped for the first time in his Test career in the second innings at Lord's - in his 118th Test innings. Here are the three batsmen to have played the most Test innings without ever being stumped:
| Name |
Team |
Innings |
| Shiv Chanderpaul |
West Indies |
221 |
| Mahela Jayawardena |
Sri Lanka |
194 |
| Nasser Hussain |
England |
171 |
Here is how
Andrew Strauss has performed in his Test career against different bowling:
| Bowling |
Runs |
Balls |
Outs |
Average |
SR |
| Left-arm seam |
618 |
1290 |
22 |
28.09 |
47.91 |
| Right-arm seam |
3851 |
7849 |
83 |
46.40 |
49.06 |
| Spin |
1639 |
3038 |
39 |
42.03 |
53.95 |
Sri Lanka bowled 28
no-balls at Lord's, and have conceded 33 in the series to England's three. In 1992 they lost the Colombo Test against Australia by 13 runs having overstepped 71 times to Australia's 14.
Graeme Swann has taken 138 wickets in his 31 Tests to date. Only Sydney Barnes (189 in only 27) and Ian Botham (153) have taken more wickets in their first 31 Tests for England.
Chris Tremlett has taken a wicket in all 16 innings in which he has bowled in Test cricket. Only three Englishmen have had better starts: Walter Robins (23 innings), Tich Freeman (21) and Ken Higgs (17). Kiwi Shane Bond took a wicket in all 32 innings in which he bowled - the best ever start.
