The week in numbers: w/e 3/7/11

Haye landed an average of just six punches per round (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

72 – David Haye landed just 72 punches during his comprehensive points defeat by Wladimir Klitschko in their world heavyweight title fight in Hamburg. Klitschko registered 134, nearly twice as many.

144 – Mahela Jayawardena scored 144 as Sri Lanka defeated England by 69 runs in the second one-day international at Headingley.

119 – England captain Alastair Cook scored 199 at Lord’s in the third ODI, but Sri Lanka still cruised to an easy six-wicket victory as Dinesh Chandimal made an unbeaten 105.

7 – Thomas Levet became the seventh Frenchman – and only the second in the last 42 years – to win golf’s French Open as he beat Britain’s Mark Foster by one stroke.

5 – Number of trophies won by the Great Britain rowing team at Henley Royal Regatta, the last major event in the UK before the London 2012 Olympics.

84 – Durham‘s Callum Thorp took 6/20 as Lancashire were bowled out for just 84 in the first innings of their County Championship match. Durham won a low-scoring match by five wickets.

4.70 – 19-year old Holly Bleasdale cleared a height of 4.70m to break the British women’s pole vault record, previously held by Kate Dennison, by 10cm.

5 – Double Paralympic swimming champion Eleanor Simmonds was one of five British gold medallists on the opening day of the IPC European Championships in Berlin yesterday.

Wimbledon in numbers

Pironkova beat Venus for the second consecutive year (image courtesy of wimbledon.com)

2 – Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova became only the second woman to beat Venus Williams at back-to-back Wimbledons, after winning their last-16 match 6-2 6-3. The other player to do so was Venus’s sister Serena in 2002 and 2003.

8 – For the first time in the Open era, the eight quarter-finalists in the ladies’ singles were represented by eight different nationalities.

1 – Jo-Wilfried Tsonga became the first player ever to defeat Roger Federer in a Grand Slam singles match from two sets down, winning 3-6 6-7 6-4 6-4 6-4.

4 – Sabine Lisicki became only the fourth female player ever to reach the semi-final of a Grand Slam singles tournament as a wild-card, after Zheng Jie (Wimbledon 2008), Kim Clijsters (US 2009) and Justine Henin (Australia 2010).

5 – Andy Murray lost in four sets to Rafael Nadal in their semi-final, but nonetheless boasts an enviable record of five semi-final appearances in his last seven Grand Slam tournaments.

3 – Murray is only the second male player to have lost his first three Wimbledon semi-finals. Tim Henman is the other.

1 – By reaching the men’s final, Novak Djokovic became the first Serbian tennis player to gain the world number one ranking.

Eight proved to be Kvitová's lucky number? (image courtesy of wimbledon.com)

21 – Petra Kvitová defeated Maria Sharapova 6-3 6-4 in the ladies’ singles final to become the first left-handed winner since Martina Navratilova in 1990, 21 years ago. At the time, Kvitová was less than four months old.

1 – Kvitová also became the first number eight seed to win a ladies’ singles Grand Slam final, at the tenth attempt.

38 – Sharapova‘s erratic serve contributed towards her downfall. She served 38 double faults, 14 more than any other female player and more than twice as many as Kvitová’s 17.

5 – Novak Djokovic‘s 6-4 6-1 1-6 6-3 win over Rafael Nadal in the men’s final was the fifth time he has defeated the Spaniard in 2011, but also marked his first victory over him at a Grand Slam tournament.

35 – No player converted more break points in the tournament than Djokovic‘s 35. Nadal was second, with 30.

17 – Djokovic bounced the ball 17 times before serving on championship point.

The Tour de France in numbers

16 – George Hincapie has now equalled the all-time record of Dutchman Joop Zoetemelk in making his 16th start at the Tour de France.

Gilbert claimed his 13th win of 2011

13 – Philippe Gilbert won stage one to take his 13th win of 2011, his first career Tour victory and the yellow jersey. He is one of a select group of riders to have won stages of cycling’s three Grand Tours: the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España.

80 – Number of seconds lost by defending champion Alberto Contador when he was caught on the wrong side of a crash in the peloton on the run-in to the finish of the first stage.

12 – Number of seconds separating first from seventh in Sunday’s team time trial, won by Garmin-Cervélo.

1:42 – Contador finished the second day of the Tour 1:42 behind yellow jersey Thor Hushovd.

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

The week in numbers: w/e 27/3/11

Bonds faces the possibility of being expunged from the MLB record books (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

762 – Career home runs struck by Barry Bonds, a Major League Baseball record. Bonds is now facing trial for perjury, having previously told a grand jury that he had never knowingly taken performance enhancing drugs. He is alleged to have doped as part of the Balco conspiracy.

4 – Oxford won the 157th University Boat Race by a surprisingly easy four lengths over favourites Cambridge on Saturday.

19 – Age of Oxford’s Constantine Louloudis, the youngest rower on either crew. The Londoner is considered to have a chance of representing Great Britain at next year’s Olympics.

1 – Rowers named Redgrave racing on Boat Race weekend. Natalie, 19-year old daughter of Sir Steve Redgrave, was part of the winning Oxford crew in the women’s race in Henley on Sunday.

3 – Sebastian Vettel secured a dominant victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne. It was his third consecutive win dating back to last season, and his 11th overall in F1.

New Wales captain Ramsey got off to a losing start

20 – At the age of 20, Aaron Ramsey became Wales‘s youngest captain ever, but England nevertheless won 2-0 at the Millennium Stadium thanks to early goals by Frank Lampard and Darren Bent.

49 – Spain came from 1-0 down to beat the Czech Republic 2-1 courtesy of two second half goals by David Villa. They have now have lost just one of their 49 competitive home matches since 1991 (1-0 vs Greece, June 2003).

118 – World ranking of Alex Bogomolov Jr, who defeated Andy Murray in straight sets at the Sony Ericsson Open. It is the second consecutive tournament in which Murray has lost to a qualifier, having been eliminated from BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells by Donald Young.

1 – Number of gold medals won by the Great Britain team at cycling’s World Track Championships at Apeldoorn in Holland. Only the women’s team pursuit won their event, although Britain did win three silver and five bronze medals. Australia topped the medal table with eight golds.

The cricket World Cup in numbers

8 – Pakistan’s slow bowlers took eight of the ten West Indies wickets in bowling their opponents out for a miserly 112 in their quarter-final victory.

Ponting produced a brave century in defeat

104 – Australia captain Ricky Ponting scored 104 against India – two more runs than he had managed in total in his five previous innings in the tournament – but it was not enough to prevent the three-time defending champions from sliding to defeat.

1996 – India’s quarter-final win means someone other than Australia will win the World Cup for the first time since 1996. It will also be the first final not to feature the Aussies since 1992.

51 – South Africa lost their last seven wickets for just 51 runs, throwing away a seemingly dominant position as New Zealand won a thrilling match by 49 runs.

3 – Eoin Morgan was dropped three times by Sri Lanka en route to making 50 during England’s ten-wicket quarter-final defeat.

2 – Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Thuranga are the only opening pair to both make centuries in a World Cup match. Their unbeaten stand of 231 against England marked the second time they have achieved this feat.

3 – England have now lost on all three occasions after winning the toss and choosing to bat in a World Cup knockout match (also against India in 1983 and Sri Lanka in 1996).

2 – Two of the four quarter-finals were won without losing a wicket by the team batting second – Pakistan against the West Indies, and Sri Lanka against England.

(Some statistics courtesy of Opta Sports, The Times, @InfostradaLive, Cricinfo and @StatManJon.)

The week in numbers: w/e 7/11/10

Édgar Rentería, 2010 World Series MVP (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

56 – The San Francisco Giants‘ 4-1 win over the Texas Rangers gave them their first World Series triumph since 1954 (a gap of 56 years), and their first since relocating from New York in 1957.

4 – Short-stop Édgar Rentería hit the three-run homer which gave the Giants their 3-1 victory to clinch the World Series. He is only the fourth man to have struck the winning hit in a World Series-clinching game (having previously done the same for the Florida Marlins in 1997), joining an exclusive club comprising three of baseball’s biggest legends: Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra. Rentería was also voted the World Series MVP, the first Colombian player to receive that accolade.

25 – Number of points deducted from Scottish First Division club Dundee, after they went into administration for the second time in seven years. This left them on minus-11 points, 20 points adrift at the bottom of the division.

7 – Marseille‘s 7-0 away win at Slovakian champions MŠK Žilina was the largest ever victory by a visiting side since the European Cup adopted the Champions League format.

14 – Arsenal‘s 2-1 defeat at Shakhtar Donetsk marked the 14th successive Champions League away game in which they have failed to keep a clean sheet.

8 – Celtic beat Aberdeen 9-0 on Saturday, despite only having eight shots on target.

Brazilian GP winner Sebastian Vettel (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

4 – Number of drivers who can still win the Formula 1 drivers’ title with just the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to come. Sebastian Vettel led a Red Bull one-two in Brazil to cut Fernando Alonso‘s advantage over the German’s teammate Mark Webber to just eight points. Lewis Hamilton is a rank outsider, 24 points behind Alonso. (25 points are available for a win.)

2 – If Alonso finishes second in Abu Dhabi, he will guarantee winning his third drivers’ title.

1 – Although the drivers’ title remains in doubt, Red Bull claimed their first constructors’ world championship, in only their sixth season.

4 – Britain enjoyed their most successful ever World Rowing Championships, winning four gold medals in Olympic-class events (and five in total).

The Premier League week in numbers

61 – Number of minutes for which West Bromwich Albion played with nine men at Blackpool on Monday night. Although they lost the match 2-1, the score during the 61 minutes for which they had a two-man disadvantage was 1-1.

29 – After their 2-2 draw with Everton, Blackpool have now scored in 29 consecutive home matches, last failing to score at home on 18th October 2009.

Owen Hargreaves - crocked again

777 – Owen Hargreaves started Manchester United‘s game against Wolves, 777 days after his previous Premier League start.

5 – Hargreaves lasted for just five minutes before leaving the field injured. (United won 2-1.)

8 – Liverpool‘s 2-0 win against Chelsea ended their run of eight consecutive league wins against the other members of the ‘Big Four’ (Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal).

27 – Cesc Fàbregas misplaced 27 passes in Arsenal’s 1-0 home defeat to Newcastle, his worst ever tally in a Premier League game.

2 – Arsenal are the first ‘Big Four’ side to lose at home to two different newly promoted teams in a Premier League season.

2 – Mario Balotelli became the first player to score twice and be sent off in the same Premier League match since Robbie Keane against Birmingham in December 2007.

The NFL week in numbers

3 – There were three overtime games this weekend, the most in the NFL since week two of the 2006 season.

13 – The Atlanta Falcons have won 13 straight home games under quarterback Matt Ryan, whose overall home record as a starter is now 17-1 (Atlanta 27 Tampa Bay 21).

Philip Rivers (image courtesy of chargers.com)

22 – Philip Rivers had his 22nd straight game with at least one passing touchdown (the longest active streak in the NFL) as San Diego beat Houston 29-23. He now has 2,944 passing yards this season, putting him on pace for an NFL-record 5,234 yards.

7 – The New York Jets picked up their seventh straight road win – a franchise record – as they defeated Detroit 23-20 in overtime.

1 – Detroit rookie defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh missed an extra point attempt standing in for injured kicker Jason Hanson. He is the first defensive tackle since at least 1970 to attempt a kick in a game.

3 – The Oakland Raiders have won three straight games for first time since their 2002 Super Bowl season, and their five wins is already tied for their most since the same season. (Oakland 23 Kansas City 20 (OT)).

12 – The Philadelphia Eagles improved to 12-0 in games following a bye week under coach Andy Reid, the longest such streak in the NFL. (Philadelphia 26 Indianapolis 24).

13 – Indianapolis‘s loss ended the Colts’ streak of 13 straight wins in games played in November.

(Some statistics courtesy of @OptaJoe, @optajim, @OptaJean and NFL.com.)

Related Articles

• Owen Hargreaves may have had anxiety attack, says United manager (guardian.co.uk)
• ‘Anxiety’ may have led to Owen Hargreaves’ setback, says Alex Ferguson (guardian.co.uk)
• Hargreaves limps out of comeback (news.bbc.co.uk)