England vs Pakistan 2016, 2nd Test: Stats - Alastair Cook's personal record and Younis Khan's poor form

It was a comprehensive win for England

Alastair Cook’s decision to bat again merely delayed the inevitable as England won the second Test against Pakistan by 330 runs at Old Trafford to level the series 1-1 with two more Tests to go. For his career-best score, Root walked away with the Man of the Match.

After electing to bat, England put on 589 thanks to a double ton from Root and a century from Cook and put the visitors on the back foot immediately. By dismissing them for under 200 in the first innings, they turned the screws even more. Cook then surprised everyone by electing to bat and ended the third day one shy of his fifty.

Having begun the day on 98/1, England batted for a while before setting the visitors a massive 565 runs to win. If achieving that seemed impossible, the poor display yet again from the top order made it seem even bigger.

Although Misbah-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq and Mohammad Hafeez all got starts, it wasn’t enough as England’s bowlers kept chipping away and now Pakistan will have to dig deep and find a way to comeback and win the third Test.

Here are some interesting numbers from the game:

1 – Alastair Cook’s strike rate of 97.43 is his best ever in Tests. His 76-ball 78 was his best Test strike rate in an innings of 25 or more balls.

1 – Only once have England defeated Pakistan by a bigger margin than the 330 in this Test. The biggest was six years ago at Trent Bridge when they thrashed them by 354 runs.

2 – The 565 set by England is the second-biggest Pakistan have been set in Tests. The biggest is 573 by West Indies in 2005.

2 – Only two Pakistan bowlers have conceded more than Yasir Shah’s 266 in a Test. The record for most runs conceded belongs to Saqlain Mushtaq’s 286 against Sri Lanka in 1997 and second is Haseeb Ahsan’s 275 vs WI.

3 – Root is the third English batsman after Sandham and Gooch to score a 250 and 50 in the same Test.

3 – Only Muttiah Muralitharan, Anil Kumble and Shane Warne have taken more Test wickets at home than James Anderson (290), who went past Glenn Mcgrath’s 289 to take the fourth spot in list of most Test wickets at home.

4 – Root’s tally of 325 runs is the fourth-most by any batsman against Pakistan in a Test. Mark Taylor (426), Garry Sobers (365) and Sourav Ganguly (330) are the only three to have scored more than Root.

6 – Younis Khan’s run of 6 consecutive Test innings without a fifty equals his worst streak and his first one since 2003.

14 – England have not lost a Test match at Old Trafford for 14 years. In their last 10 Tests, they have won 8 and drawn two.

18.50 – The first wicket for Pakistan has averaged just 18.50 in this series. In the 2010 series, it was 11.62.

38 – Root’s 38-ball fifty is the fastest Test fifty by an England batsman against Pakistan beating David Gower’s 42-ball half-century also achieved in Manchester. It was also the fastest fifty by an English top-order (1-3) batsman in Tests.

55 – The 55-ball fifty in the second innings at Old Trafford was Cook’s fastest Test fifty beating his 56-ball effort against India at Mohali in 2008.

325 – Only Wally Hammond, who scored 336 against New Zealand in 1933 has scored more runs at No.3 than Joe Root’s 325 for England. His tally was also the most runs by a batsman in  a Test at Manchester.

330 – Pakistan’s margin of defeat is their fourth-worst in the history of Tests. Their 491-run loss against Australia at Perth in 2004 remains their worst in terms of runs.