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Pakistan's fourth-biggest opening stand

Azhar Ali's 11th century put him among Pakistan's greats, Pakistan v West Indies, 1st Test, Dubai, 1st day, October 13, 2016 ESPNcricinfo

4 The 215-run stand between Sami Aslam and Azhar Ali was Pakistan's fourth-biggest opening partnership in Tests. This was the fourth double-century stand by Pakistan openers - and their third against West Indies. The last double-century opening partnership for Pakistan was 219 between Imran Nazir and Mohammad Wasim against the same opposition in Bridgetown in 2000.

1997 The last time both Pakistan openers faced 200 or more balls in the same Test innings - Aamer Sohail and Ijaz Ahmed, also against West Indies, in Karachi. Here, Aslam faced 212 balls while Azhar faced 268 balls till end of the first day's play.

407 Balls played by Azhar and Aslam in their first-wicket partnership - the most for Pakistan in an opening stand (where ball-by-ball information is available). The previous longest stand was 339 balls between Imran Farhat and Salman Butt in their stand of 129 runs against New Zealand in Napier in 2009-10.

3 Number of century opening partnerships for Pakistan in the first innings of a Test in the last 20 years. Shehzad and Hafeez had added 178 in Abu Dhabi in 2014-15, and Butt and Yasir Hameed at the SCG in 2004-05. They had eight such stands prior to that in 35 years.

178 Previous highest opening stand in the UAE, between Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi in 2014-15. Azhar and Aslam's partnership is the first double-century partnership for any team in the UAE.

2 Pakistan players who scored more centuries in their first 50 Tests than Azhar's 11. Hanif Mohammad and Younis Khan had made 12 centuries at the same stage of their careers. Mohammad Yousuf also had 11 hundreds in his first 50 Tests.

193 Runs scored by Azhar as opener in seven innings prior to this match. He had not made a single fifty; his highest was 49. His previous ten centuries were all scored at No. 3.

3 Fifties for Aslam in his last three Tests, including this match. He had made 82 and 70 against England at Edgbaston a couple of months back. The innings of 90 in this innings is his best so far in Tests in eight innings.

2005 The last time an opening pair added more than 200 runs against West Indies outside the West Indies. Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey had put on 231 runs in Hobart. There were two more double-century opening stands against West Indies in between, both at their home and both in Bridgetown.

3.90 Economy of West Indies' opening bowlers on the first day of this match - Shannon Gabriel leaked 55 runs at 3.92 and Miguel Cummins 62 at 3.87. The rest of the bowlers conceded runs at 2.65 and none of them had economy rate of more than three.