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The week in numbers: w/e 22/4/12

Vettel finally won his first race of the 2012 season (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

10 – Points separating the top five drivers after defending Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel won the Bahrain Grand Prix. His first victory of the season catapulted him from fifth to first in the standings, with 53 points.

4 - The win by Red Bull’s Vettel marked the first time since 1983 the first four races of the season have been won by four different drivers (Button, Alonso, Rosberg, Vettel) from four different teams (McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull).

2Wilson Kipsang and defending champion Mary Keitany secured a Kenyan double by winning the men’s and women’s races at the London Marathon.

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The week in numbers: w/e 8/4/12

Jayawardene scored his 31st century and the 2,000,000th Test run

2,000,000 – Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene scored the two millionth run in Test history en route to his 31st Test century on day one of the second Test against England in Colombo.

1 – Having lost all four previous Tests on their winter tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, England finally won in Colombo, as Kevin Pietersen hit 151 and 42 not out to lead England to an eight-wicket victory.

6 - In a race which had to be restarted halfway because of the intervention of a swimmer in the river, Cambridge won the 158th Boat Race to maintain their perfect record of having won on all six occasions when the event has been held on April 7th – although victory came courtesy of Oxford suffering a broken oar in a clash shortly after the restart.

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The week in numbers: w/e 18/9/11

Djokovic improved his record against Nadal in 2011 to 6-0 in winning the US Open

6Novak Djokovic‘s 6-2 6-4 6-6 6-1 victory over Rafael Nadal in Monday’s US Open men’s singles final improved his 2011 record against the Spaniard to 6-0 and made him only the sixth man to win three Grand Slam singles titles in the same year, joining Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, Roger Federer (three times) and Nadal.

97.0%Djokovic‘s win percentage in 2011, currently the best single-year record ever. He has lost just twice in 66 matches this year.

26Federer (12), Nadal (10) and Djokovic (four) have now won 26 of the last 27 Slams between them, dating back to the 2005 French Open. The only man to break the sequence is Juan Martín del Potro, who won the US Open in 2009.

77Lancashire won their first County Championship in 77 years after beating Somerset by eight wickets.

3AC Milan became only the third team in Champions League history to score in the first and last minutes, as they drew 2-2 at Barcelona. Alexandro Pato‘s opening goal after 24 seconds was the fifth-fastest in the history of the competition.

17 – Borussia Dortmund’s late equaliser in a 1-1 draw extended Arsenal‘s run of Champions League away games without a clean sheet to 17 games.

Giggs has now scored in 16 separate Champions League campaigns

16Ryan Giggs‘ goal for Manchester United in the 1-1 draw at Benfica means he has now scored in a record 16 of the 17 Champions League campaigns he has played in, failing only in 2007-08.

2Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake recorded the fastest times of 2011 in the 100 and 200 metres respectively at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels. Bolt clocked 9.76s in the 100 metres, while Blake’s 19.26s in the 200 metres was also the second-fastest run ever, 0.07s behind Bolt’s world record.

1Jonathan Trott became the first ever English cricketer to win the ICC Cricketer of the Year award outright. (Andrew Flintoff shared the award with Jacques Kallis in 2005.) Alastair Cook also won Test Player of the Year.

8Barcelona‘s 8-0 win over Osasuna in La Liga on Saturday night marked the first time they had scored eight times in a game at the Camp Nou since October 2003. Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick.

3 – The HTC-Highroad pair of Mark Cavendish and Mark Renshaw recorded three one-two wins during the Tour of Britain‘s eight stages. Cavendish won the final sprint in London to claim his second stage. Dutchman Lars Boom won the overall race by 36 seconds.

58:56 – Kenya’s Martin Mathathi broke the men’s record for the Great North Run, winning in a time of 58:56 – nine seconds faster than the previous record and the sixth-best half-marathon time ever.

The Premier League in numbers

3 – All three promoted sides won on Saturday: Swansea beat West Bromwich Albion 3-0, while QPR and Norwich won 3-0 at Wolves and 2-1 at Bolton respectively.

Arteta has scored for both Everton and Arsenal at Ewood Park this season (image courtesy of arsenal.com)

2Mikel Arteta‘s goal in Arsenal’s 4-3 defeat at Blackburn marked the second time he has scored in the Premier League at Ewood Park this season. He had already scored the only goal when Everton won 1-0 in August.

3 – Shots on target by Blackburn, who scored four goals.

373 - Scott Sinclair’s 14th-minute opener for Swansea was their first Premier League goal, ending a run of 373 minutes without scoring.

5Bolton‘s 2-1 defeat at home to Norwich means they have lost five consecutive top-flight home matches for the first time ever.

5Norwich equalled Wimbledon’s feat (in the 1999-2000 season) of conceding a penalty in each of the first five games of a season.

14Liverpool‘s 4-0 defeat at Tottenham, in which they finished with just nine men, was the 14th consecutive away game in which they have gone on to lose after trailing at half-time.

4Stoke‘s 4-0 defeat at Sunderland means they have failed to score in their four Premier League visits to the Stadium of Light.

5Wayne Rooney became only the second player to score in each of first five matches of a season, scoring the last of Manchester United’s goals in the 3-1 win over Chelsea. Former Arsenal player José Antonio Reyes was the first to achieve the feat, in 2004/05.

6Martin Jol remains unbeaten as a manager against Manchester City as Fulham recovered from two goals down to draw 2-2. However, the draw did end his perfect record of six wins out of six against City prior to yesterday’s game.

1 – Four of the five teams who started the weekend winless – Blackburn, Swansea, Sunderland, Norwich – won their matches. Only Fulham remain waiting for their first victory.

The Rugby World Cup in numbers

11 - Penalties committed by England in an ill-disciplined first half of their 41-10 win over Georgia. They conceded just three after the interval.

Shaw became England's oldest ever World Cup player

38 – At 38 years and 17 days, Simon Shaw became the oldest player to play for England at a Rugby World Cup.

0 – Number of tries scored in Scotland‘s 15-6 win over Romania.

1Russia lost 13-6 to the USA in their debut World Cup match, as Mike Petri scored the only try in the first half. It was also only the third ever win in the competition for the USA.

83New Zealand‘s 83 points in their 83-7 win over Japan was the 14th highest score in Rugby World Cup history. In total, they have posted six of the top 14 individual scores.

3Australia‘s 15-6 defeat to Ireland was only the third time they had failed to score a try in their 36 World Cup matches.

6South Africa and Argentina both scored six tries from six different players as they beat Fiji 49-3 and Romania 43-8 respectively.

The NFL in numbers

11 – New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady became only the 11th man to pass for over 500 yards in a single game as he registered 517 yards and four touchdown passes in a 38-24 Monday night win over the Miami Dolphins. One of Brady’s four touchdown passes was a 99-yarder to Wes Welker, a former Dolphin.

358 – However Brady did throw one interception, ending his NFL record streak without an interception at 358 pass attempts.

Janikowski tied the NFL record with a towering 63-yard FG (image courtesy of raiders.com)

63 – The Oakland Raiders’ Sebastian Janikowski tied the NFL record by kicking a 63-yard field goal in their 23-20 win over the Denver Broncos. New Orleans’ Tom Dempsey (in 1970) and Denver’s Jason Elam (1998) also landed 63-yarders.

5 – The Buffalo Bills scored on all five second half possessions as they overcame a 21-3 half-time deficit to beat the Oakland Raiders 38-35. The lead changed hands five times in the last 14:10, the last on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick to David Nelson with 14 seconds remaining.

45 – The Detroit Lions‘ margin of victory in their 48-3 win over the Kansas City Chiefs was the largest in the team’s history.

16Santonio Holmes‘ first quarter score in the New York Jets‘ 32-3 win over Jacksonville broke his team’s streak of 16 consecutive games without an offensive touchdown in the opening period.

11 – Rookie running back Ben Tate became only the 11th player in NFL history to rush for at least 100 yards in his first two games as the Houston Texans defeated the Miami Dolphins 23-13. Tate gained 107 yards on the ground.

7 – Both Carolina Panthers rookie Cam Newton and New England’s Tom Brady had their second consecutive 400-yard passing days, becoming only the sixth and seventh quarterbacks ever to achieve the feat. Carolina have lost both games (they lost 30-23 to the Green Bay Packers last night); New England have won both (they beat San Diego 35-21).

(Some statistics courtesy of Opta Sports, The Times, StatManJon, Infostrada, nfl.com and rugbyworldcup.com.)

The week in numbers: w/e 14/8/11

Cook's 294 is more than the entire Indian team have scored in any single innings

294Alastair Cook scored a career-high 294 in England‘s third Test victory over India, more than the tourists have managed as a team in any of their six innings to date in the series. (Their highest score is just 288.) Victory guarantees England the world number one ranking at the end of the series, regardless of the result of the fourth and final Test. They currently lead 3-0.

2 – India’s Virender Sehwag was out first ball without scoring in both innings.

710England‘s total of 710/7 declared was their third-highest Test total ever (and their highest against India).

3India‘s margin of defeat (an innings and 242 runs) was their third-worst ever in Tests.

Imogen Bankier and Chris Adcock won an unexpected silver at the World Badminton Championships (image courtesy of Badminton England.co.uk)

18 – World ranking of British mixed doubles badminton pair Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier, who reached the final of the World Badminton Championships at Wembley Arena, beating the number eight, four and two seeds en route. They lost to world number ones Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei 21-15 21-7 in the final.

77 - Tiger Woods‘ first round score at the US PGA championship, his worst ever opening round at a major. He followed it with a second round 73 to miss the cut by six shots.

3 - Keegan Bradley won the US PGA after a three-hole play-off against Jason Dufner, making him only the third player in golfing history to win the first major he has entered (Francis Ouimet, 1913 US Open and Ben Curtis, 2003 Open Championship).

5 - Dufner had led by five shots after the 15th before a bogey-bogey-par finish.

13 - Bradley became the 13th different winner in the last 13 majors, and the seventh consecutive first-time winner.

5 – World number one Novak Djokovic beat Mardy Fish 6-2 3-6 6-4 in the final of the Montreal Masters to become the first player ever to win five Masters events in the same season (in addition to the Australian Open and Wimbledon).

2Serena Williams won the final of the Rogers Cup in Toronto, her second consecutive tournament win since returning after a year’s absence through injury.

Ainslie was in dominant form in the Finn class event (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

5 – Three-time Olympic champion Ben Ainslie won five out of six races to ease to overall victory in the Finn class at the Olympic regatta test event at Weymouth.

1 - Britain’s Mark Cavendish took victory in the London-Surrey Cycle Classic - the test event for the Olympic cycling road race – winning the final sprint on The Mall.

10 – Durham’s Phil Mustard has won the toss on all ten occasions he has captained the County Championship first division leaders this season.

11Darren Stevens took match figures of 11/70 in Kent’s 265-run win over Surrey at Canterbury.

557,000,000 – Amount in pounds for which the London 2012 Olympic Village was sold to a partnership including the Qatari Royal Family’s company. It will be developed as private housing after the Games.

The Premier league in numbers

1Wolves‘ 2-1 win at Blackburn was the first time they have ever won a Premier League away match after conceding the opening goal.

36Arsenal‘s 0-0 draw at Newcastle was the first time their opening game of the season ended goalless since 1975 (vs Burnley), a gap of 36 years.

Gervinho was sent off on his Arsenal debut (image courtesy of arsenal.com)

2 – For the second straight season, Arsenal had a player sent off on debut on the opening weekend of the season after signing from a French Ligue 1 club. Last season it was Laurent Koscielny (Lorient) – this year it was Gervinho (Lille). It was also the third straight league meeting between the two sides in which Arsenal have been reduced to ten men.

31Norwich‘s 1-1 draw at Wigan marked their 31st consecutive Premier League away game without a win.

5Bolton‘s 4-0 win at QPR ended a run of five straight losses and was only their second away win in 19.

8 - Manchester United‘s 2-1 win at West Bromwich Albion was their eighth consecutive top-flight win at the Hawthorns, equalling the top division record for consecutive wins at an opponent’s ground.

13Chelsea only drew 0-0 at Stoke, but this was nonetheless their 13th consecutive opening day fixture without defeat since a 2-1 loss at Coventry in 1998.

5 – With two games still to play, there have been five draws in the opening round of Premier League fixtures. Last season there were only four draws in the first seven rounds combined.

(Some statistics courtesy of Opta Sports, The Times, StatManJon and Infostrada.)

The week in numbers: w/e 7/8/11

Rudisha appears unbeatable over 800 metres (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

30 – World record holder David Rudisha ran a new UK all-comers record of 1:42,91 for the 800 metres in the Diamond League meeting at Crystal Palace. It was his 30th straight win at the distance.

24 – Number of seconds Britain’s Helen Clitheroe knocked off her previous best time in the 5,000 metres as she finished second to the USA’s Lauren Fleshman. Clitheroe clocked 15:06.75.

319England‘s margin of victory in the second Test against India as they took a 2-0 lead in the series. If they can avoid defeat in the remaining two matches, they will overtake India at the top of the Test rankings.

4 – The last four winners of football’s Community Shield have gone on to win the Premier League title (Manchester United, United, Chelsea, United). Manchester United defeated Manchester City 3-2 after Nani scored his second goal of the game in injury time to complete United’s comeback from a 2-0 halftime deficit.

21 – Points scored by Port Adelaide in their 138-point defeat against Collingwood in their AFL match-up, the second-lowest total by any team in the last 20 seasons.

25Alistair Brownlee‘s margin of victory (in seconds) in yesterday’s Hyde Park triathlon, on the course which will be used for next year’s Olympic event. Brother Jonathan was third.

4 – Australian Adam Scott won the WGC Bridgestone Invitational in Ohio by four shots after a final round of 65. World number one Luke Donald tied for second, while Rory McIlroy was tied-sixth, seven shots back. Seven-time winner Tiger Woods finished 18 shots behind Scott, who was caddied by Woods’ former right-hand man Steve Williams.

Carberry scored an unbeaten triple century

523 – Stand shared between Michael Carberry (300 not out) and Neil McKenzie (237) during Hampshire’s County Championship draw with Yorkshire at the Rose Bowl. It was the ninth-largest partnership ever, 32 short of the record set in 1932.

10 – Somerset’s Alfonso Thomas took match figures of 10/88 as they beat Sussex by nine wickets at Taunton.

4Nottinghamshire lost four wickets for no runs in the space of just six balls as they collapsed from 21/0 to 21/4 against Durham. Nonetheless the match was drawn.

6 – Winning margin for Peter Sagan at cycling’s Tour of Poland – equal to the time bonus he received for finishing second in the closing sprint at Saturday’s final stage.

4 – Stage victories for German sprinter Marcel Kittel in Poland. He won all four flat sprint stages.

484 – Wins for HTC-Highroad‘s male and female cyclists – including British sprinter Mark Cavendish – since the start of 2008, more than any other team. Team owner Bob Stapleton announced the team would fold at the end of this year after failing to secure a sponsor.

98In Brighton & Hove Albion‘s first game since promotion to the Championship in their new home at Amex Stadium, debutant Will Buckley scored two late goals to give them a 2-1 victory over Doncaster Rovers. Buckley’s winner came in the 98th minute.

(Some statistics courtesy of Opta Sports, The Times and Infostrada.)

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