South Africa vs England, 2019-20: 4th Test, Day 1 – England’s half millionth run, Toss records for Faf and Root, England’s 3-year wait and more stats

The final game of the 4-match Test series between South Africa and England in Johannesburg was affected by rain as only 54.2 overs of play was possible on the opening day. England began in the same way as they did in Port Elizabeth as Zak Crawley (66) and Dominic Sibley (44) shared a 107-run stand for the first wicket. However, the English team then lost four wickets in space of 76 deliveries for 50 runs. Skipper Joe Root (25*) and Ollie Pope (22*) shared 35 runs for the 5th wicket before the stumps.

All the statistical highlights from the first day’s play of the Johannesburg Test match:

England’s first-century stand since 2016:

107 – The partnership of 107 runs for the first wicket between Zak Crawley and Dominic Sibley is England’s maiden 100-run opening stand since the start of 2017. England’s last century stand for the opening wicket was recorded by Sir Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings who put on 103 in England’s 2nd innings of the Chennai Test in 2016.

Between these two partnerships, England spent 70 innings without a 100-run opening stand; the longest such streak for the English team in this format.

2009 – The opening stand of 107 is also the first 100-run opening partnership in the first innings of a Test for England in more than 10 years. It is the first such partnership since the 196-run stand between Sir Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss in the opening inning of the 2009 Lord’s Test against Australia.

2009 – The last instance of a century opening stand by a visiting team in the opening inning of a Test in South Africa was also record in 2009. Phil Hughes and Simon Katich added 184 in the first innings of the Durban Test.

England’s half millionth run:

500006 – England became the first side to aggregate 500000 runs in Test cricket. The single by Joe Root off Beuran Hendricks in the 53rd over of England’s first inning was the 500000th run recorded for them in this format.

Stokes @ 1000:

1000 – Ben Stokes completed 1000 runs in Test cricket with the two runs he scored on Friday. Stokes is now the 15th player from England to aggregate 1000 Test runs against South Africa. A total of 31 players till date have scored 1000 runs in Test matches between England and South Africa.

Du Plessis and his dubious toss record:

7 – Number of consecutive tosses lost by Faf du Plessis in Test cricket; the 2nd longest streak for any South African captain. The country record is held by Graeme Smith who lost eight consecutive tosses in this format between 2008 and 2009. Du Plessis toss losing spree began during the 3-match Test series on the Indian tour against India.

Root’s rare achievement in tosses:

2 – Joe Root became only the 2nd captain in Test history to win tosses in all games of 4+ match Test series. Root won all the tosses during the 2018 5-match home Test series against India. Gary Sobers is the other such captain as he won tosses during the 1966 5-match series in England and the 5-match Test series against New Zealand during 1971/72 home season.