Stats wrap: Lyon, Warner shatter records

144 – Number of Test matches Australia have won away from home, the joint-most by any team alongside England. Australia’s seven-wicket win to square the series against Bangladesh in Chittagong was their 144th overseas victory in the game’s longest format. Their away win percentage, which is now 36.64, was already the best among all teams as they have won 144 out of 393 Tests on the road. In contrast, England have the same number of wins in 482 matches. Interestingly, England’s last away win was also in Chittagong against Bangladesh last year.

13 – Number of wickets taken by Nathan Lyon in the Chittagong Test, the second-best match figures for an Australia spinner. Lyon followed his seven scalps in the first innings with six more in the second and ended the match with 13 wickets for 154 runs. Among the Aussie spinners, only Clarrie Grimmett (14-199) has better match analysis. Lyon’s 13-154 is also the seventh best performance in a Test for Australian and the best by any Australian bowler in Asia, bettering Steve O’Keefe’s 12-70 against India in Pune earlier this year. In the first innings in Chittagong, Lyon also became first bowler in history to dismiss the top four batsmen lbw.  

22 – Number of wickets taken by Lyon in the series, the equal-second most by a bowler in a two-Test series and most by anyone away from home. The off-spinner fell just one short of the record that is held by Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath who accounted for 23 wickets in the series against Pakistan in 2014. Lyon equaled Muthiah Muralidaran’s tally of 22 wickets against South Africa in 2006. The previous record by an Australian spinner was 17 by Stuart MacGill, also against Bangladesh in 2003. 

79 – Number of years since Australia last opened the bowling with a spinner in the first innings of a Test. Lyon shared the new ball with Pat Cummins on the opening day of the match and became the first slow bowler from Australia since Bill O’Reilly against England in Nottingham in 1938 to bowl on a fresh wicket. Lyon also opened the bowling in the second innings and that was first time in his career that he shared the new ball in both innings. 

3 – Number of six-wicket hauls in successive innings by Lyon. He became the ninth bowler in Test history and second from Australia, after Clarrie Grimmett, to take 6 wickets in three consecutive innings. Lyon followed his 6-82 in the last innings at Mirpur with 7-94 and 6-60 in Chittagong. The other bowlers to claim six wickets in three successive innings are: George Lohmann (1896), Grimmett (1932 & 1936), Jim Laker (1956), Imran Khan (1982), Laxman Sivaramakrishnan (1984), Harbhajan Singh (2001), Daniel Vettori (2004) and Rangana Herath (2012). 

3 – Number of stumpings effected by Mathew Wade in Chittagong, quite astonishingly the most by an Australian wicketkeeper in a Test in 62 years. Wade, who had come under severe criticism after the first Test, pouched three catches and effected as many stumpings. The last Aussie ‘keeper to make three or more stumpings in a match was Gil Langley against West Indies in Georgetown in 1955. 

1 – Number of Bangladesh batsmen that have been out stumped twice in a Test. Sabbir Rahman became the first from his country and 20th overall to be dismissed twice by this mode of dismissal. Sabbir who scored 60 and 24 in the match was undone by Wade off Lyon in both innings. 

209 – Number of balls taken by David Warner to reach his hundred, the slowest of his 20 centuries in Tests. Warner played a grinding and cautious knock of 123 in the first innings that helped Australia to get a match-winning 72 runs lead. The left-hander’s previous slowest hundred had come off 154 balls against Australia in Adelaide. 

73 – Number of consecutive deliveries Warner faced without a boundary in the first innings, his longest stretch in a Test innings without hitting a four or six. His previous longest boundary-less streak was 64 balls against South Africa in Cape Town in 2014. He also used16 balls to move from 99 to 100. In the last seventeen years, only one Australian required more balls to convert 99 into a hundred – Michael Clarke (25 balls) against South Africa in Cape Town in 2014. 

119 – Number of innings taken by Warner to score 20 centuries in Tests as an opening batsman. He became third quickest to the milestone. Among openers, only Matthew Hayden (95) and Sunil Gavaskar (92) took less than 119 innings to score 20 centuries.  

23 – Number of overs bowled by Steve O’Keefe in the first innings in Chittagong without a maiden. No Australian has bowled more than 23 maiden-less overs in a Test innings since the 6-ball overs in 1979. 

2 – Number of times Bangladesh pacers have taken two or more wickets in an innings in their last 24 home Tests going back to 2010. Mustafizur Rahman’s four wickets in the first innings was just the second instance of a Bangladeshi pacer taking more than two wickets in seven years. The other instance was also by him when he grabbed four on his debut against South Africa in 2015.