Only two South African batsmen have made higher Test scores at No. 7 than Quinton de Kock © ESPNcricinfo Ltd
129* Quinton de Kock’s score, his maiden century in Tests, and the second highest of his nine international hundreds. His highest is 135 in an ODI against India in Johannesburg in 2013. His unbeaten 129 is also the third highest by a South African No. 7 batsman in Tests: the best is 182, by Denis Lindsay, against Australia in Johannesburg in 1966, while Lance Klusener scored 174 against England in Port Elizabeth in 1999.
19 Instances of three of more centuries in a Test innings for South Africa; four of those have been in Centurion. The last such instance for them was also at this venue, when Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Stiaan van Zyl all got hundreds against West Indies in December 2014.
48.58 South Africa’s runs per wicket in the first innings in Centurion since the beginning of 2004, the highest among all home venues where they have played more than one Test during this period. In 14 innings, they have topped 400 ten times.
3 Instances of three centuries and three ducks in a team innings in a Test. The two previous instances were by West Indies against India in Kolkata in 2002, and by England against Australia in Sydney in 1932. In South Africa’s first innings in Centurion, Stephen Cook, Hashim Amla and de Kock got hundreds, while AB de Villiers, Kagiso Rabada and Morne Morkel were dismissed for ducks.
4-86 Ben Stokes’ bowling figures in South Africa’s first innings; only three times has he returned better figures in a Test innings. In this series, Stokes has taken 11 wickets at 28.54, and has improved his numbers significantly after taking just two wickets in the first two Tests.
19.28 Alex Hales’ batting average in this series – he has scored 135 runs in seven innings, with five sub-20 dismissals. Since 2000, there have been only three instances of England openers having poorer averages in a series (with a cut-off of six innings), and all of them were in 2015: Jonathan Trott averaged 12 in the West Indies, Adam Lyth 12.77 in the Ashes series at home, and Moeen Ali 14 against Pakistan in the UAE.
3 Ducks for de Villiers in his last ten Test innings: he didn’t score a run in the first innings of the Nagpur Test against India, and was also dismissed for a duck in the second innings in Johannesburg. This is the first time he has been dismissed for zero in successive Test innings. De Villiers went 78 innings before getting his first duck – incidentally also in Centurion – which is a record in Test cricket. After getting only three ducks in his first 165 Test innings, he has added three more in his last ten.
63.50 James Anderson’s bowling average in the series: he has taken just four wickets in 100.2 overs. In eight Tests in South Africa, Anderson has 22 wickets at an average of 43.22, which is his poorest average in any country.
103 Runs scored by Alastair Cook in six innings in this series before this Test. His unbeaten 67 in Centurion is his first half-century of the Test series.
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo