Important numbers of The Ashes
The greatest clash of all in Cricket – The Ashes – is back for the 69th time in the history since 1882/83. This time it is in England and will begin at Cardiff on July 8.
In previous Ashes in England, the visitors were given a defeat of 3-0 to retain the Ashes. But soon within six months, Australia thrashed the English with a 5-0 victory at their home to regain the Ashes after about seven years.
It’s been over 130 years since the Ashes is being played between the two sides. It has a vast history with numerous number of players involved in it over the years.
With 69th Ashes beginning, let’s focus on some of the important numbers of this great rivalry.
85 – The target England failed to achieve at The Oval on August 29, 1882 which lead to the beginning of Ashes. It was England’s first defeat against their home crowd and thus their leading newspaper The Sporting Times published that the English cricket has died and the body will be cremated and the Ashes taken to Australia. This is the lowest target defended successfully in the history of Test cricket. Such was the defeat for England which resulted in the rivalry.
8 – Number of consecutive Ashes won by England in the beginning of the rivalry from 1882/83 to 1890. In 1891/92, Australia got their first Ashes victory under the leadership of Jack Blackham by winning the 3-match series 2-1.
3 – Number of whitewashes in Ashes series of four or more number of matches. All three were by Australia in 1920/21, 2006/07 and in 2013/14. The winning captains were Warwick Armstrong, Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke respectively.
68 – Total number of Ashes series so far from 1982/83 to 2013/14; 34 in each of the countries.
32 – Number of Ashes won by Australia.
31 – Number of Ashes won by England
5 – Number of Ashes series drawn. First was in 1938 and last in 1972. Only once there were two consecutive Ashes series drawn in 1965/66 and in 1968.
771 – Total number of players appeared in Ashes tests (till the 2013/14 Ashes). 420 played for England and 351 for Australia.
15 – Number of venues at which Ashes tests have been played, 9 in England and 6 in Australia.
52 – Number of matches played by Syd Gregory in Ashes which is the most by any player in the history. He played 58 matches in his test career spanning from 1890 to 1912 in which 52 were in Ashes. No other played more than 50 Ashes tests. Next highest is Steve Waugh with 45 tests from 1986 to 2003.
28 – Number of matches captained by Allan Border in Ashes which is the most by any captain. The next highest is Archie MacLaren with 22 tests as captain.
5028 – Aggregate of runs scored by Don Bradman in Ashes tests, most by any batsman. Highest by an Englishman is 3636 by Jack Hobbs.
89.78 – Batting average of Don Bradman in Ashes which is the best by anyone who played more than three Ashes tests. Highest average for an Englishman is 84.42 by Eddie Paynter.
19 – Number of centuries by Don Bradman in Ashes, most for any batsman. Only others with 10 or more Ashes centuries are Jack Hobbs (12) and Steve Waugh (10).