England vs Pakistan, 2020: 3rd Test, Day 4 – A rare long opening stand in England, Azhar Ali’s milestone and more stats

Only 56 overs of play was possible on 4th day at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton as the rain made its appearance yet again. Abid Ali (42 off 162) and Shan Masood (18 off 66) added 49 for the first wicket in 23.4 overs before the Pakistan skipper Azhar Ali continued to remain not out in the match. He scored an unbeaten 29 off 92 balls as Pakistan ended the 4th day at 100/2. The final day’s play of this Test is expected to be around the anticipation of James Anderon’s 600th wicket as the result is likely to be a formality.

Here are all the statistical highlights from yet another day’s play halted by rain in Southampton:

A rare long opening stand in England:

23.4 – Abid Ali and Shan Masood batted for 23.4 overs during their opening stand of 49 runs. It is the first time a visiting pair in England batted for 20 or more overs in an innings in nearly four years.

The last pair to do so was Dimuth Karunaratne-Kaushal Silva who batted 31 overs in their first innings of the 2016 Lord’s Test. This is also the longest opening stand for Pakistan on England soil in Test cricket post their tour of England way back in 1996.

1996 – No Pakistan opening pair has shared a 50+ partnership in Test cricket against England on England soil since the 106-run stand between Aamer Sohail and Saeed Anwar during Pakistan’s first innings of 1996 The Oval Test.

The 49-run stand on Monday is Pakistan’s highest opening stand against England in the last 38 Test innings on England soil.

A mixed series for Masood:

87.15 – As much as 87.15% of Shan Masood’s series tally of 179 came during the 156-run knock in Manchester. This is the highest proportion of a Test series runs been scored in a single innings for Pakistan. (Min: 100+ runs & 5+ innings)

Saqlain Mushtaq had 84.87% of his series runs scored during the 2001 away Test series against New Zealand came in a single knock. Mushtaq scored 119 runs in the series with help of an unbeaten 101.

4 – Shan Masood has been dismissed via LBW four times across five innings in this series. These are the most times a Pakistan opener got dismissed LBW in a Test series. Mohammad Hafeez also had four LBW dismissals during the 3-match Test series in 2012 against England in UAE.

Only Akram ahead of Anderson and Broad:

51 – James Anderson now has claimed 51 wickets at home against Pakistan in Test cricket. He completed 50 home Test wickets against Pakistan with the 5-wicket haul on Sunday. During the Tests between England and Pakistan on England soil, only Wasim Akram (53) has picked more wickets than Anderson. Stuart Broad is placed at No.3 in this list having claimed 47 wickets; same as Imran Khan.

Azhar @ 1000:

1007* – Azhar Ali became the 9th player from Pakistan to amass 1000 runs in Test cricket against England. However, Azhar is the slowest to this milestone among the nine players as he needed 32 innings for it. The previous slowest was Hanif Mohammad who completed 1000 Test runs against England in 31 innings.

364* – Azhar Ali now has batted 364 balls in this Test match; the most number of balls faced in a Test match by a Pakistan captain since Misbah-ul-Haq (433 balls) in the 2011 Wellington Test match.