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          Bowlers lead England to new high

          • S Rajesh, Stats editor, ESPNcricinfo
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              S Rajesh is ESPNcricinfo's stats editor in Bangalore. He did an MBA in marketing, and then worked for a year in advertising, before deciding to chuck it in favour of a job which would combine the pleasures of watching cricket and writing about it. The intense office cricket matches were an added bonus.
          Aug 13, 2011, 03:41 PM

          England's comprehensive victory gives them the No.1 ranking, an accolade that they richly deserve considering their recent performances. A look at the stats highlights from this game and series so far:

          • The margin of victory, an innings and 242 runs, is England's fifth-largest in all Tests, and their second-best against India. Their biggest win was against Australia way back in 1938, by an innings and 579 runs, but three of their five largest victories have come since 2005.

          • For India, this was their third-largest defeat ever in Test history, and their biggest in more than 37 years. It's also their second-biggest loss to England, next only to their innings-and-285-runs drubbing at Lord's in 1974.

          • England's win makes them the best Test team in the world according to the ICC rankings, and it's an accolade they richly deserve. Since the beginning of May 2009 they've won 19 Tests and lost 4, a win-loss ratio of 4.75; India have won 11 and lost 6, a ratio of 1.83. During this period, their batsmen have averaged 40.14, with 38 centuries in 30 Tests. Only South Africa have a higher average. Their bowling average of 28.94, though, is clearly the best. The top three wicket-takers during this period have all been England bowlers.

          • India's defeat ends a fine spell in which they went without a series defeat in 11 attempts - their last series loss was in Sri Lanka in 2008. (Click here for India's series results since 2005.) It's also the first series defeat for MS Dhoni, whose captaincy numbers have slipped to 15 wins and six defeats in 30 Tests.

          • India's overall average partnership in this series so far has been 24.35, compared to England's 54.09. They've had one century partnership to England's nine. In six innings India haven't once faced 100 overs; in fact, they've gone downhill over these three Tests - 95.5 and 96.3 at Lord's, 91.4 and 47.4 at Trent Bridge, and 62.2 and 55.3 at Edgbaston.

          • India's average stand for the top six wickets in this series has been 27.27. Among series in which there have been at least 30 partnerships for the first six wickets, this is their second-poorest since 1995. It's slightly poorer than their effort in Australia in 1999-2000, which was the last time they lost three Tests in a series.

          • The one crumb of comfort for Dhoni was his own batting form - it was the fourth time he topped 50 in both innings of a Test, but the first such instance in more than two years.