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Statistical highlights of England v Zimbabwe 2nd Test 2003 by Rajneesh Gupta

Scorecard:

This was 1647th Test match in cricket history.
Umpires Darrel Hair and Dave Orchard were officiating in their 45th and 38th match respectively.
Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street became Englands eighth and 87th ground in the world to host a Test match. Interestingly it was after about 101 years that England were using a new ground for Test cricket. Before this, Englands latest Test ground was Bramall Lane in Sheffield, which hosted solitary Test match in July 1902.
Richard Johnson was making his debut for England. He became 615th player to represent England in Test cricket.
Johnson took two wickets in his first over as he dismissed Mark Vermeulen off his third ball and Stuart Carlisle off his fourth ball. He became first bowler in Test cricket to take two wickets in his first over in Test cricket.
Johnson, by returning the figures of 6 for 33 (in first innings), became 45th Englishman to take five (or more) wickets in an innings on debut.

The seven LBW decisions in the Zimbabwean first innings constituted a new world record in Test cricket. The previous record for the most LBWs in a Test innings was for six such decisions on 12 occasions.The details :

7     Zimbabwe v England         Chester-le-Street       2003
6     England v South Africa     Leeds                   1955
6     England v West Indies      Kingston                1959/60
6     England v Pakistan         Karachi                 1977/78
6     West Indies v England      Kingston                1985/86
6     Pakistan v Australia       Melbourne               1989/90
6     India v Sri Lanka          Chandigarh              1990/91
6     Pakistan v Sri Lanka       Faisalabad              1991/92
6     New Zealand v Pakistan     Hamilton                1992/93
6     South Africa v Australia   Durban                  1993/94
6     West Indies v India        Mohali                  1994/95
6     West Indies v Australia    Bridgetown              1998/99
6     West Indies v Pakistan     Sharjah                 2001/02

Zimbabwes first innings total of 94 is their lowest fourth lowest in all Tests. However their lowest against England still remains 83 at Lords in 2000.
Mark Vermeulen got an entirely unwanted name on his name when he was dismissed twice in the match without scoring. Interestingly both his dismissals were only 169 minutes (2 hours 49 minutes) apart. This is the fourth fastest pair on record in Test cricket (timed from the start of first innings to dismissal in the second innings). The details :
```
120 mins   MEZ Ghazali          Pak v Eng     Manchester          1954
124 mins   RN Harvey            Aus v Eng     Manchester          1956
164 mins   Pankaj Roy           Ind v Eng     Manchester          1952
169 mins   MA Vermeulen         Zim v Eng     Chester-le-Street   2003
```

Vermeulen became 12th batsman to bag a pair on the same day. Here-under is the complete list :

Batsman       For  Vs   Test  Venue              Season   BP1  Out on   BP2  Out on
R Peel        Eng  Aus  4th   Sydney             1894/95   8    56-7     6    14-5
CE McLeod     Aus  Eng  1st   Sydney             1901/02   6   112-6     6    59-5
AEE Vogler    SA   Aus  1st   Sydney             1910/11  11   174      11   240
TA Ward       SA   Aus  1st   Old Trafford       1912     11   265       9    70-8
AV Bedser     Eng  WI   4th   The Oval           1950      9   322-8     9    83-8
Pankaj Roy    Ind  Eng  3rd   Old Trafford       1952      2     4-2     2     7-2
MEZ Ghazali   Pak  Eng  3rd   Old Trafford       1954      6    66-5     5    10-4
RN Harvey     Aus  Eng  4th   Old Trafford       1956      3    48-2     3    28-1
FMM Worrell   WI   Aus  2nd   Melbourne          1960/61   6   142-5     6    99-5
CS Martin     NZ   Pak  1st   Lahore             2001/02  11    73      11   246
HK Olonga     Zim  SL   3rd   Galle              2001/02  11   236      11    79
MA Vermeulen  Zim  Eng  2nd   Chester-le-Street  2003      2     3-1     2     5-1
BP1= Batting Position in first inns, BP2= Batting Position in second inns

The sixth wicket partnership of 54 runs between Travis Friend and Sean Ervine in second innings is Zimbabwes best for this wicket against England obliterating the 20 run-partnership between Heath Streak and Tatenda Taibu at Lords in 2000.

The sixth wicket partnership of 149 runs between Alec Stewart and Anthony Griffith is Englands highest for this wicket against England. This expunges the 68 run-partnership between Mark Butcher and Griffith in the first Test of this series at Lords.
The eighth wicket partnership of 32 runs between Ashley Giles and Richard Johnson equals Englands highest for this wicket against Zimbabwe. Andrew Caddick and C Schofield were also involved in an identical partnership at Nottingham in 2000.

The defeat was ninth in a row for Zimbabwe the second worst sequence for any side in Test cricket. The record is of 13 consecutive losses, which is held by Bangladesh (who else). The accompanying table lists the longest losing streaks in Test cricket :

Tests   For             From                            To
13      Bangladesh      v Zim,Chittagong,2001/02        v SA,Dhaka,2002/03
9       Zimbabwe        v SL,Colombo SSC,2001/02        v Eng,Chester-le-Street,2003
8       South Africa    v Eng,Port Elizabeth,1888/89    v Eng,Cape Town,1898/99
8       England         v Aus,Sydney,1920/21            v Aus,Leeds,1921
7       Australia       v Eng,Melbourne,1884/85         v Eng,Sydney,1887/88
7       England         v WI,Lord's,1950                v Aus,Adelaide,1950/51
7       India           v Eng,Leeds,1967                v Aus,Sydney,1967/68
7       England         v WI,Kingston,1985/86           v Ind,Leeds,1986
7       England         v Pak,The Oval,1992             v Aus,Lord's,1993
7       West Indies     v Eng,Leeds, 2000               v Aus, Sydney,2000/01

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