Ashes Stats: Smith’s first five; Neser’s record debut

After Australia took control of the second Ashes Test, Sky Cricket number-cruncher Benedict Bermange has all the key stats from day two in Adelaide.

Marnus Labuschagne reached his first Ashes century from 287 balls, the slowest Test century for Australia since Jason Gillespie took 296 balls to get there on his way to his unbeaten 201 against Bangladesh at Chittagong in April 2006.

Steve Smith scored his first “five” off the 13,893th ball of his Test career. Hashim Amla and Younis Khan each scored six “fives” in their Test careers – more than anyone else.

The last time two Australians made scores in the 90s in the same Test innings was against India at Mohali in March 2013. On that occasion, the two batters were Smith (92) and Mitchell Starc (99). The only previous occasion it had occurred in Ashes cricket was at Brisbane in 2006 when Paul Collingwood made 96 and Kevin Pietersen 92.

Michael Neser’s strike rate in his innings of 35 was the highest by anyone in the first innings of their Test debut facing at least 20 deliveries.

Joe Root took his 12th Test wicket of the year. No-one has ever scored more runs and taken more wickets in the same calendar year than Root’s current tallies of 1,544 and 12 respectively.

Root’s closest rival is Virender Sehwag, who scored 1,462 runs and took 15 wickets in 14 Tests for India in 2008.

Only two other players have scored at least 1,000 runs and taken at least 10 wickets while captaining their sides in a calendar year in Test cricket: Bobby Simpson of Australia in 1964 and Angelo Mathews of Sri Lanka in 2014.