Ashes: Australia opener Chris Rogers equals world record

Cardiff (Wales), July 9: Australian opener Chris Rogers today equalled the world record during the 2nd day of the 1st Ashes Test against England at Sophia Gardens.

Rogers compiled his 7th consecutive 50 plus score in Tests on Thursday to join an elite club. The left-handed Australian is only the 5th batsman and first opener in Test history to register 50 plus scores in 7 Test innings in a row.

The list includes Everton Weekes (West Indies), Andy Flower (Zimbabwe), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies) and Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka). Weekes was the first to achieve this record. Of the 5 in the list, 4 are left-handers.

The 37-year-old Rogers, playing in his 21st Test, reached the milestone by taking a couple of runs off Moeen Ali in the 23rd over of the innings today. Australia were replying to England's first innings score of 430.

Rogers' sequence of half centuries started against India in Brisbane in December 2014. All the 4 others went to score at least one century but Rogers is yet to convert them into a three-figure mark. His highest is 95 (twice including today's) in last 7 innings. Overall, he has 4 hundreds.

Batsmen with 7 consecutive 50+ scores in Test innings

1. Everton Weekes (1948 to 49)

141, 128, 194, 162, 101, 90, 56

2. Andy Flower (2000 to 2001)

65, 183 not out, 70, 55, 232 not out, 79, 73

3. Shivnarine Chanderpaul (2006 to 2007)

69, 74, 50, 116 not out, 136 not out, 70, 104

4. Kumar Sangakkara (2014)

75, 319, 105, 147, 61, 79, 55

5. Chris Rogers (2014 to 2015)

55, 55, 57, 69, 95, 56, 95

OneIndia News