It is the kind of record you do not know how to view.
The Australian writer Geoff Lemon dug it out, but when Chris Rogers was dismissed for 95 on Thursday in Cardiff, he became the first batsmen to lose his wicket on a score between 50 and 99 in seven consecutive innings.
Plenty have made seven consecutive 50-plus scores, but all have gone onto at least one hundred, or more. Others who have made six consecutive such scores were unbeaten at least once (only Rahul Dravid has six consecutive dismissals between 50 and 99).
Rogers’s 95 on Thursday followed scores of 55, 55, 57, 69, 95 and 56.
Some would calculate an average of 68.86 from those scores and be happy. Others would point out the lack of a hundred and wonder about conversion troubles.
It is a great run of form, but a nagging one, and Rogers has little time left to add to a haul of four hundreds after he confirmed in May that the Ashes would be his last slice of international action.
It has been short, but it has been mostly sweet. His 95 was exactly the kind of innings he was drafted into the Australian XI for two years ago, on the last tour to England.
At the time, Australia were burning through openers, makeshift and specialist, as they looked to stabilise a wonky, fleeting batting order.
He had played a single Test for Australia back in 2008, at the end of that great Australian era.
He had already – and continued to – built an epic domestic career. It was his experience with Middlesex that prompted his return in 2013.
Since then he has been doing what he did yesterday.
England, when the ball is swinging, offers about as tough an examination of an opener as any team and James Anderson and Stuart Broad let him know it.
He was beaten several times and edged a few more in an opening burst that was good enough to account for his younger partner David Warner, also left-handed but who might as well be a different species.
He survived and then, as ever, he thrived. He does not possess an expansive game but neither does he fit that description beloved of batsmen of his ilk: nuggety. He is minimalist sure, but no sluggard.
The only time he looked in discomfort was in the period leading to his dismissal. Broad shortened his lengths and cramped him for room after tea; Rogers responded once with an uppercut dab that felt like it had been borrowed from Warner’s wardrobe of shots.
Missing another hundred will be annoying but his part, as it has been over the past two years, was done.
Already the tone of this Ashes, even after just two days, feels vastly different to the last. England look and are playing as a different, less-jaded side. They are younger and fresher somehow.
Australia, in keeping with the reputation of this side, will need to draw upon all their experience. None more so than that of Rogers.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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