Johnson's Ashes best, England's long tail

Stats highlights from the third day's play between Australia and England at Adelaide Oval

Shiva Jayaraman

07-Dec-2013

Mitchell Johnson sees off James Anderson, Australia v England, 2nd Test, Adelaide, 3rd day, December 7, 2013

Mitchell Johnson continued his dominance over England batsman from the last Test into this innings - his bowling figures of 7 for 40 in this match were his best in the Ashes, and his second five-wicket haul in three innings. Johnson has now taken 16 wickets at 8.93 from three innings in this Ashes.

This is also only the fourth time that a left-arm fast bowler has taken seven or more wickets in the Ashes, and the first time since Bruce Reid took 7 for 51 in Melbourne in 1990. Johnson's figures are also the best by a fast bowler in the Ashes since Michael Kasprowicz finished with 7 for 36 at the Oval in 1997.

Johnson's bowling figures in this innings are now the best by a fast bowler in the Ashes at Adelaide Oval, beating Mathew Hoggard's 7 for 109 in 2006. Johnson's 7 for 40 is also the best by a bowler at this venue in the Ashes since England's Jack White took 8 for 126, way back in 1929. Australia's Albert Trott is the only other bowler with bowling figures better than Johnson's at this venue in the Ashes - he took 8 for 43 in 1895. Click here for a list of the best bowling efforts in Tests at the Adelaide Oval.

England's lower-middle order and tail haven't contributed much with the bat in the three innings in this series. Their batsmen from No.5 and below, have added just 159 runs at an average of 8.83 runs per wicket - at this stage their lowest in the Ashes.

Australia coming back to bat in the second innings despite leading by 398, was only the sixth time that a team did not enforce the follow-on despite leading by 350 or more runs in the first innings. Four of these occasions have come in the Ashes. The last time a team opted to bat again even after leading by 350 runs or more in a Test was at Galle last year, when Sri Lanka - leading Pakistan by 372 at the end of the first innings - batted again.

Teams not enforcing follow on after being ahead by 350 or more
Team	Opposition	Lead	Venue	Date	Result
England	Australia	399	Brisbane	30-Nov-1928	Won
England	West Indies	563	Kingston	03-Apr-1930	Draw
Australia	England	380	The Oval	18-Aug-1934	Won
Australia	England	445	Brisbane	23-Nov-2006	Won
Sri Lanka	Pakistan	372	Galle	22-Jun-2012	Won
Australia	England	398	Adelaide Oval	05-Dec-2013	-

Matt Prior's terrible form with the bat continued in this innings - his duck in England's first innings was his fifth in nine matches and 16 innings. Only one other wicketkeeper fared as badly as Prior has this year in terms of the number of ducks he has notched - Wally Grout of Australia also got out without scoring five times out of 13 innings in 1961. Prior has scored just 180 runs at 13.84, with a high score of 47 since his last fifty-plus innings- against New Zealand in Auckland back in March.

Michael Clarke, during his 148 in the first innings, crossed 1000 Test runs in Tests in 2013. He's the first batsman this year to do so. This is the second successive year and the fourth time in his career that Clark has scored 1000-plus Test runs in a year. Among Australia batsmen, only Ricky Ponting (5) and Matthew Hayden (5) have got 1000-plus runs in a year more often.

Matt Prior Michael Clarke Mitchell Johnson Australia England Australia vs England England tour of Australia

Shiva Jayaraman is a sub-editor (stats) at ESPNcricinfo.com