Centuries for top four batsmen – Pakistan's rare feat in Karachi
Also, Babar Azam’s career average has gone above 40 for the first time since 2016
S Rajesh22-Dec-20192 – Instances of the top-four batsmen scoring hundreds in a Test innings. Shan Masood, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali and Babar Azam all got their milestones against Sri Lanka in the second Test in Karachi. The only previous instance of this was in 2007, when India’s top four – Dinesh Karthik, Wasim Jaffer, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar – scored centuries against Bangladesh in the first innings of the Mirpur Test. This, though, was the first such instance of it in a second innings, where there have only been four previous instances of three centurions among the top-four batsmen.ESPNcricinfo Ltd503 – Runs added by Pakistan’s first three wickets, which is Pakistan’s fourth-highest in a Test innings. Their highest is also against Sri Lanka – 555 – in Faisalabad in 1985, when Qasim Umar and Javed Miandad both got double-hundreds and added 397 for the third wicket. The three higher aggregates were all in the team’s first innings, though; in the second innings, there are only two instances of any team adding more runs for the first three wickets. The highest is also against Sri Lanka – 615 by New Zealand in 1991 – when Martin Crowe made 299 and Andrew Jones 186.ESPNcricinfo Ltd527 – The total runs scored by Pakistan’s first four batsmen, which is the fourth-highest for them. Their highest is 535 against India in 1983, but the more memorable effort was in 1958 in Barbados, when Hanif Mohammad scored a monumental 337 to avert defeat after Pakistan were forced to follow on.42.67 – Babar’s career average. It is the first time his average has gone above 40 since his third Test in 2016. At the end of 2017, Babar averaged 23.75 after 11 Tests. In the last two years, he has upped his game significantly, scoring 1232 runs – 616 each in 2018 and 2019 – at an average of 61.60. That average is the highest among the 14 batsmen who have scored 1000-plus Test runs in the last two years.
13 – Innings between hundreds for Azhar, who finally broke his poor run with his 118 today. In those 13 innings, going back to December 2018, Azhar had scored 162 runs at an average of 12.46. Despite that hundred, 2019 has been a lean year for him, with 11 innings fetching only 239 runs. However, it ensured that he has scored at least one Test century in each of the last six calendar years.193 – Runs conceded by Lasith Embuldeniya, which is the most by a Sri Lanka bowler while taking a maximum of one wicket in an innings. He went past Muttiah Muralitharan’s figures of 1 for 172, also against Pakistan in Karachi in 2009, also the last Test series Pakistan hosted.