The recent Test match between England and New Zealand at Lord’s has delivered a string of unusual and historic statistics, marking it as one of the most extraordinary encounters in modern Test cricket.
The match featured just 996 balls bowled, making it the third-lowest number of deliveries in a men’s Test match in which a side was dismissed twice, highlighting the extreme brevity and intensity of the contest.
Previously, the 1907 Leeds Test between England and South Africa ended with 976 balls bowled, while the 1888 Lord’s Test between England and Australia lasted just 792 balls.
This made it the shortest Test match played at Lord’s since 1888 in terms of balls bowled, and also the eighth-shortest completed Test match ever played in England.
A total of 24 wickets were taken by bowlers via bowled or lbw, setting a new record for any Test match in England. The previous record was 23, set during the 2007 Test between England and India.
Remarkably, this was only the third Test match played in England in which no spinner bowled a single delivery. This had previously occurred in the 1981 Ashes series and in a match between England and the West Indies in 1988.
Batting proved extremely difficult throughout the match, with the highest individual score across all four innings being just 57 runs, made by debutant Emilio Gay. Similarly, the highest partnership in the match was also 57 runs.
New Zealand scored a total of only 251 runs in both innings combined, their second-lowest aggregate after being dismissed twice since 1970.
Read more: Shaheen Afridi dropped from Pakistan’s test squad
