ENGLAND: Moeen Ali registered another MOTM award as his all-round performance helped England beat South Africa at Old Trafford to win the series 3-1. It was a series full of record breaking performances. Here are some stats of the records that were re-written after the end of the series.
2 – Losses for South Africa in an away series since 2007. Before defeat to England, South Africa lost to India in 2015. During this period they won 12 and drew three away Test series.
11 – Spinners from England to take 25 or more wickets in a Test series. Before Moeen, Graeme Swann was the last to achieve this, during the 2013 Ashes in England.
5 –Man of the Match awards for Moeen Ali in Tests since his debut – the joint most for England, alongside Joe Root, in this period. Only Steven Smith has more such awards with six.
3 – Number of centuries scored in the entire series. There were also 27 half centuries, with the 10% conversion rate the worst for any Test series of four or more matches. Pakistan’s tour of India in 1979 had three centuries and 26 fifties, which is second worst in terms of converting fifties to hundreds. Since readmission this is only the second time that South Africa have managed just one individual century in a Test series of a minimum of four matches. They scored none during the tour of India in 2015-16.
113 – Runs made by Heino Kuhn in this series – the second worst for an opener from South Africa in Tests having played a minimum of eight innings. Kuhn could manage a top score of only 34 in his debut series.
2 – Number of century stands for England this series, out of six overall. The last time England had fewer century stands was in the 2013-14 Ashes in Australia. South Africa contributed the other four century stands. Incidentally, South Africa’s top run-scorer this series, Hashim Amla, was involved in three of them.
