England vs West Indies, 2020: 3rd Test, Day 1 – Holder’s obsession to bowl first, Root’s run out dismissals, Buttler’s streak and more stats

England found themselves in a steady position at the end of the first day’s play in the deciding 3rd Test in Manchester. West Indies elected to bowl first yet again and left the hosts at 112/4 despite a gritty fifty from Rory Burns (57) at the top. England, who took the field with an extra bowler, got the big partnership that they needed. The pair of Jos Buttler (56*) and Ollie Pope (91*) put on an unbeaten 136-run stand from 38 overs as England ended the day at 258/4 from the 85.4 overs possible before the bad light.

Here are all the statistical highlights from the first day’s play of the deciding Manchester Test match:

Jason Holder’s obsession with bowling first:

6* – Jason Holder has elected to bowl first for the 6th consecutive Test match where he won the toss. This makes him the first West Indies captain to have elected to bowl six successive times on winning the toss in Test cricket. Carl Hooper chose to bowl first in five consecutive Tests where he won the toss in 2002.

Geoff Howarth (8 during 1980-1983), Arjuna Ranatunga (7 during 1989-1992), Kane Williamson (7 during 2016-2018) and Jeremy Coney (6 during 1985-1987) are the other captains in the World to have elected to bowl first in six or more consecutive Tests where they won the toss.

Overall, this was the 10th time where Holder chose to bowl first on winning the toss. West Indies won only three of the previous nine and lost in the remaining six. If they lose the ongoing Test, Holder will become the first captain in Test cricket to lose as many as seven matches after electing to bowl first.

End of Buttler’s dry patch:

14 – The unbeaten fifty on the first day brought an end to Jos Buttler’s streak of 14 innings without a fifty-plus score in Test cricket. His previous 50+ score in this format came during the first innings of 2019 The Oval Test against Australia where he made 70. Since then, Buttler scored 289 runs in 14 innings at an average of only 20.64 prior to the current match.

Captain Root gets run out again:

4 – Joe Root now has been dismissed run out in Test cricket for the 4th time as captain; the most run out dismissals in this format for any England captain. Root was run out in the 2nd innings of the previous Test and twice during the 2018 home Test against India.

Only Ricky Ponting (9), Stephen Fleming (6) and Geoff Howarth (5) have been dismissed via a run out more than four times as captains in Test cricket.

Stokes falls to Roach:

5 – Ben Stokes now has been dismissed four times in Test cricket in the bowling of Kemar Roach; the most number of dismissals in the longer format for Stokes against any pacer. Ravi Ashwin (7), Nathan Lyon (6) and Dilruwan Perera (5) are the other bowlers who managed to claim the wicket of Stokes five or more times.

All or nothing series of Sibley:

2005 – Dominic Sibley became the first England opener in more than 14 years to have recorded two or more 50+ scores and also bag two or more ducks in the same Test series. The last English opener with such a double was Marcus Trescothick during a 3-match Test series in Pakistan that was held in November 2005.