Stats: South Africa vs England 2nd Test day 3 - Amla and AB de Villiers break South African records

South Africa ended day three of the second Test against England still in with a chance of salvaging something from the game, thanks to a captain’s knock by Hashim Amla, who ended the day unbeaten on 157.

Although the Proteas are still 276 runs behind England’s first innings total of 629/6 declared, fifties from AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis (who was unbeaten at the end of the day) ensured that they ended day three having lost just a solitary wicket.

In the process of his unbeaten hundred, the South African skipper broke quite a few records. Here are some of the best stats from day three:

2 – Although Amla finally got his Test century after 13 innings, this was the second occasion when he has gone 13 innings without a Test hundred. while the current run stretched back from December 2014 to January 2016, the previous one was between November 2008 and December 2009.

3 – AB de Villiers became the third South African batsman to cross 8,000 Test runs. He is the joint-15th fastest in Tests, after reaching his landmark in 172 innings. Only Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith have scored more Test runs for South Africa than his 8,038.

5 – Amla’s century was his fifth Test ton against England, which equals the most he has against any team. Australia and India are the two other countries against whom he scored five centuries.

7 – This was Amla’s seventh Test innings in which he has faced 350+ deliveries, which is a South African record. Gary Kirsten is second-best with four. In fact, there have been five other occasions when Amla has played a longer innings, in terms of balls faced, than his current knock of 371 balls.

11 – This was the first time after 11 successive Test innings that Faf du Plessis has managed to score a fifty. In the 11 innings, he scored just 133 runs at an average of 12.09.

13 – After 13 Innings, Amla finally recorded a Test century. His last ton was his 208 against West Indies in Centurion in December 2014. Although he scored only fifty in that period, he has had a worse run without a century. Between May 2006 and November 2007, he went 23 innings without a hundred.

56.68 – Together Amla and de Villiers average 56.68 per partnership in 45 innings. They have seven century partnerships between them and their aggregate of 2503 is the seventh highest among all South African Test pairs.

144 – The number of dot balls played by Amla and de Villiers in the first session. The hosts only scored 58 runs off 29 overs, which was a complete contrast from day two, when the visitors hammered 196 runs in 25 overs.

183 – Amla and AB de Villiers added 183 for the third wicket, which is the sixth-best partnership for the wicket against England, and also the third highest against England for the third wicket at home.

2014 – For the first since 2014, the Proteas posted a century partnership in Tests. The last century stand was between du Plessis and Dean Elgar, when they added 179 against West Indies in the Boxing Day Test. Their highest partnership of 2015 was 97, while they had 7 century stands in 2014.

7064 – Amla became only the fifth South African to crosss 7,000 Test runs. Having taken 152 innings to reach the mark, he is the fourth-fastest South Africa to that mark, after Smith (148 innings) and Kallis, de Villiers (both 151).