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Boxing Day Test 2024-25 - a match to remember for the lower order

Pat Cummins scored some useful runs Getty Images

2 - Sunil Gavaskar and Harry Brook were the only two players to top-score in four of their first six Test innings before Nitish Kumar Reddy. He is also the first batter to top-score in four of his first six innings at No. 7 or lower. Dattu Phadkar, Wayne Phillips and Kamindu Mendis did it three times each, while Reggie Duff was the top-scorer on all three occasions when he batted at No. 7 or below.

3912 - Runs conceded by Jasprit Bumrah before taking his 200th Test wicket - the fewest among the 85 bowlers to reach the milestone. The previous fewest conceded by a bowler at the time of their 200th Test wicket was 4067 runs by Joel Garner, and among Indians, it was 4840 by Ravindra Jadeja.

Bumrah needed 8484 deliveries for his 200th wicket, the fourth fastest in terms of balls bowled and the quickest among Indians.

23 - Number of wickets for Bumrah in three Tests at the MCG, the most for an Indian bowler at an away venue. The previous highest was 20 wickets by Anil Kumble at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).

5 - Total runs scored by Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh in Melbourne - the lowest by No. 5 and 6 batters for Australia in a men's Test (where the same two batters have played at No. 5 or 6 in both innings).

10.42 - Marsh's batting average in this series - the second lowest for a top-seven Australia batter in a Test series at home, for a minimum of seven innings. The lowest is 10.12 by Kim Hughes against West Indies in 1984-85.

5 - Previous instances of an Australian batter scoring 40-plus runs in both innings of a Test match at No. 8 or lower. The last Australian before Pat Cummins at the MCG was Peter Siddle against India in the 2013 Delhi Test, where he scored fifties in both innings.

2 - Number of tenth-wicket partnerships against India to have lasted 100-plus balls in Tests since the start of 2015. Both have come in this series - 18 overs between Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in Perth and 17.5 overs between Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland in Melbourne.

744 - Number of balls faced by batters at No. 8 and lower in the Melbourne Test - the highest across the 248 Tests played in Australia since 1980. It is also the sixth highest for a Test match anywhere since 1998.