England obliterated a whole host of longstanding records on a remarkable and historic first day of the Rawalpindi Test.
After opting to bat first less than 24 hours after a viral bug affecting the England team threatened to delay the start of the Test, England piled on an extraordinary 506-4. It could have been even more had the full allocation of overs been bowled – Pakistan only bowled 75 of the allotted 90 overs for the day.
Here are all the records that England broke on the first day:
506 – the most runs scored on the opening day of a Test match. England raced past Australia’s 112-year record of scoring 494 on the opening day of their Test against South Africa at Sydney in December 1910.
200-run opening stand off 30.1 overs – the fastest double-hundred opening stand* in the history of Test cricket. Crawley and Duckett went past Joe Burns and David Warner, who added 237 against New Zealand in Brisbane in 2015/16. For any wicket, this partnership ranks third, after Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow’s 399 at 6.91 in Cape Town in 2015/16, and Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist’s 233 at 6.88 against Zimbabwe at Perth in 2003/04.
110 – the highest strike-rate for an England Test opening centurion*, registered by Zak Crawley. Duckett’s strike rate of 97 has him fourth on that same list. Crawley’s 86 balls was the fastest by an England opener.
Four hundreds on day one – the most hundreds scored by a single team on day one of a Test.
233 – England’s highest opening stand in Test cricket since the 2004 Boxing Day Test when Andrew Strauss and Marcus Trescothick shared a 273-run opening partnership.
80, 86 and 90 – the third-, seventh- and ninth- quickest Test hundreds scored by Englishmen (Harry Brook, Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope respectively)
6.74 – the highest run rate by a team to score more than 500*. The previous record? The meagre rate of 5.36 that Sri Lanka scored at against Bangladesh at Colombo in 2001. The only team to score 300 at a quicker rate is South Africa against Zimbabwe in 2005, when they scored at 6.80. That is another record that England could well go past tomorrow with Ben Stokes and Harry Brook still at the crease with Liam Livingstone and Will Jacks to come.
6.95 – the highest economy rate when by a bowler to take two or more wickets in a Test innings. That unfortunate accolade currently belongs to debutant Zahid Mahmood.
24 – the most runs scored in an over by an Englishman in a Test. Harry Brook sent six successive deliveries from Saud Shakeel to the fence en route to his first Test hundred.
108 – the highest Test score by an England wicketkeeper in Pakistan for Ollie Pope.
64 per cent – according to CricViz, England attacked 64 per cent of the deliveries they faced. This is the highest attack shot percentage of any team innings on their database.
*in matches where relevant data is available
