The week in numbers: w/e 6/11/11

Butt was found guilty of spot-fixing

30 – In months, jail sentence handed down to former Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt for his role in agreeing to arrange for three no-balls to be delivered at specified times during a Test match against England at Lord’s last year. Bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were given 12 and six-month sentences respectively.

10 – Casey Stoner, who had already secured the 2011 MotoGP title, overtook Ben Spies on the final corner of the season-closing race in Valencia to win his tenth race of the year.

The week in numbers: w/e 8/5/11

Higgins captured his fourth world title (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

4 – John Higgins won his fourth snooker World Championship with a battling 18-15 victory over Judd Trump. It was the Scotsman’s sixth tournament victory since returning from a six-month ban last November.

3 – Manchester United and Barcelona safely negotiated the second legs of their Champions League semi-finals to progress to the final at Wembley Stadium later this month. It will be a record third time the two teams have met in a European final.

18 – A 0-0 draw at Roma was enough to secure AC Milan‘s 18th Serie A title, their first in six years.

8 – Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimović, who is on loan at Milan, has now won a league title in each of the last eight seasons with five different clubs in three different countries.

Ballesteros won five Majors

54 – Age of the widely adored golfer Severiano Ballesteros, who died on Saturday morning after a 2½ year battle with a brain tumour. Seve won The Open three times and the Masters twice, and contributed to five European Ryder Cup wins as both a player and captain.

33 – Cristinao Ronaldo scored four times as Real Madrid won 6-2 at Sevilla. He now has 33 La Liga goals this season, two more than Lionel Messi.

5 – Hat-tricks scored in league games by Ronaldo this season, only the third player ever to achieve this in La Liga.

12 – Goals scored by Real Madrid in their last two away games, against Sevilla and Valencia.

6:29 – Time taken for four goals to be scored in the game between Hércules and Racing Santander. Racing won 3-2.

5 – Lancashire spinner Simon Kerrigan took five wickets for just seven runs as Warwickshire were bowled out for 97 in the second innings of their first division match. Kerrigan finished with match figures of 7/26 as he and fellow spinner Gary Keedy combined for 10 wickets in the match at a cost of just 28 runs. Lancashire won a low-scoring match by 147 runs.

Djokovic has a 32-0 record in 2011 (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

32 – Serbia’s Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal 7-5 6-4 in the final of the Madrid Open to extend his unbeaten start to 2011 to 32 matches. Only John McEnroe has started a season with a longer winning streak (42 matches in 1984).

37 – Defeat to Djokovic ended Nadal’s unbeaten run on clay at 37 matches, dating back to the 2009 French Open.

12 – Despite narrowly losing stage two to Alessandro Petacchi, Britain’s Mark Cavendish leads the Giro d’Italia by 12 seconds overall.

4 – Defending Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel secured his fourth pole position in four races in 2011 at the Turkish Grand Prix, and converted it into his third win of the season.

82 – There were 82 pit-stops at the Turkish GP, the highest number for a single race in the history of F1.

The Premier League in numbers

7 – Sunderland‘s 2-1 win at Bolton meant that Steve Bruce is now unbeaten in all seven games as a manager against Bolton. Ivan Klasnic‘s 87th-minute goal was the first time a Bruce side had conceded against Bolton.

Odemwingie scored for the fifth game in a row

5 – Peter Odemwingie became the first West Bromwich Albion player in more than 40 years to score in five successive top flight matches. Nonetheless, his side lost 3-1 at Wolves.

34 – West Brom extended their Premier League record of games without a clean sheet to 34.

2 – Tottenham conceded two penalties in the space of two minutes in their 1-1 home draw with Blackpool. Heurelho Gomes saved Charlie Adam‘s first effort, but then conceded the second penalty himself, and Adam made no mistake with his second attempt.

5 – West Ham‘s 1-1 draw with Blackburn was the fifth consecutive draw between the two clubs.

8 – Robin van Persie extended his Premier League record of scoring in consecutive away games to eight in Arsenal‘s 3-1 defeat at Stoke.

36 – Javier Hernández opened the scoring after just 36 seconds as Manchester United beat Chelsea 2-1 to move them to within a point of claiming a record 19th league title.

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

The week in numbers: w/e 26/12/10

Lionel Messi - 42 goals in 2010 (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

42 – As La Liga heads into its winter break, Barcelona‘s Lionel Messi finished calendar year 2010 with more goals (42), assists (15) and completed dribbles (166) than any other player.

29 – Messi has scored 29 goals in 28 games in all competitions (including internationals) so far this season. Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 27 in 28.

8 – Balls required by Tim Southee to claim five wickets – including a hat-trick – in New Zealand‘s Twenty20 win over Pakistan on Boxing Day. It is the first time a New Zealand bowler has taken five wickets in a match in the 20-over format.

21 – Wales international Gavin Henson returned to rugby after an absence of 21 months to help Saracens defeat Wasps 13-6 at Wembley.

The Ashes in numbers

98 – Australia recorded their lowest ever score against England at the MCG as they were skittled out for 98 by England on the opening day of the fourth Test in Melbourne.

Matt Prior - six catches in Australia's first innings

10 – All ten Australian wickets fells to catches behind the wicket, with England keeper Matt Prior claiming six of them.

10 – Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook recorded their tenth century stand as an opening pair – only Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe have exceeded that number for England.

577 – Cook’s 82 moved him to a series-leading 577 runs, which he has accumulated in just six innings.

158 – The unbeaten stand of 158 between Prior and Jonathan Trott was England’s largest sixth-wicket stand at Melbourne, surpassing the previous best of 140 set in 1929.

11 – There hasn’t been a draw between England and Australia at the MCG in their last 11 meetings there. Australia have won seven to England’s four.

The Premier League week in numbers

4 – Everton‘s 2-1 win at Manchester City last Monday night was their fourth successive away win against these opponents.

25 – City had 25 attempts on goal against Everton, but scored only via a Phil Jagielka own goal.

Carlton Cole - two goals at Fulham

2 – Carlton Cole scored twice in West Ham‘s 3-1 win at Fulham. It was the first time he has ever scored more than one goal in a single Premier League game.

5 – Cole has now also scored in each of his last five Premier League starts against Fulham.

14 – Sunderland‘s 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford means that former Manchester United player Steve Bruce has failed to beat his old club in each of his 14 attempts as a manager (two draws, 12 defeats).

8 – Manchester United have now won their last eight Boxing Day games (and 16 of the last 17).

Andy Carroll - five headed goals, all assisted by Joey Barton

5 – Newcastle‘s Andy Carroll has scored five headed goals in the Premier League – Joey Barton has provided the assist for each of them.

10 – Stoke‘s 2-0 win at Blackburn was their first Boxing Day win for 10 years.

0 – Aston Villa have not won any points from a game where they have been behind. They fell behind 2-0 at home to ten-man Tottenham before finally losing 2-1.

17 – Tottenham have now gone 17 matches – since the opening day of the season – without keeping a clean sheet in the Premier League.

The NFL week in numbers

14 – Devin Hester scored on a 64-yard, third quarter punt return as the Chicago Bears thumped Minnesota 40-14 in a freezing Monday night game. It was Hester’s 14th career return touchdown, setting a new NFL record. He also scored on a 15-yard reception in the second quarter.

Tom Brady - 319 passes without interception (image courtesy of Keith Allison)

319 – Passes thrown by New England‘s Tom Brady without an interception, breaking the previous high of 308 set across the 1990 and 1991 seasons by Bernie Kosar. The Patriots beat Buffalo 34-3. In his last 10 games, Brady has passed for 24 touchdowns and no interceptions.

15 – The Patriots have now won 15 straight games against the Bills.

38 – Chicago scored 38-plus points in back-to-back games for first time since 1989, as they beat the New York Jets 38-34.

3 – The Washington Redskins defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars 20-17 in overtime. It was the Redskins’ third overtime win this season (they are 3-1), which tied them for the NFL single-season record.

2 – The Detroit Lions won 34-27 in Miami. Having snapped an NFL record 26-game road losing streak last week, they have now won back-to-back road games.

(Some statistics courtesy of Opta Sports, The Times, @StatManJon, and NFL.com.)