Test Match Special - Daily Ashes Quiz: Fastest scoring team

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

Every weekday during the 2025-26 Ashes, comedian and statistician Andy Zaltzman poses new a cricketing conundrum. It won’t be easy though. You might want to take it away, share in your group chats and challenge your friends. Andy will reveal the answer the following day.Test Match Special has live commentary on BBC Sounds with a team including Jonathan Agnew, Simon Mann and Jim Maxwell. England's 2005 Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan, legendary Australia seamer Glenn McGrath and ex-England spinners Phil Tufnell and Alex Hartley will be part of the punditry team.

Hello, welcome to the TestMarch Special Daily Ashes Quiz with me, Andy Zaltzman, TMS statistician, and guardian of all the numbers relating to the Ashes every weekday. During the current series, I will have an Ashes-related question, which will hopefully intrigue and interest you. Mullet over, take a guess, and see how close you can get. The quiz is only available on BBC Sounds in the TMS podcast feed. You'll get the answer to the previous day's question. And that day's question, you can also catch up on previous episodes on BBC Sounds. Let's start with the answer from Friday's question after Mitchell Stark's superb tenfer in Perth.

The question was regarding wickets taken by left arm seamers in the ashes. Stark's tenfer was the first by an Australian in the ashes since Shane worn at the Oval in 2005. His fourth and final ashes tenfer or other bowlers between them, including Stark, have taken six Ashes Tenfers since the start of Warnes career. He was quite good at bowling. It was the first by an Australian Pace bowler since Craig McDermott in 1990 to 91. It was the first by any left-arm bowler in the ashes since test match specials Phil Tuffnell at the Oval in 1997 when he took a glorious 11 for 93.

And of course, you can hear Tuffers on our exclusive ball-by-ball commentary of every ball of the men's ashes available on five sports extra. And BBC Sounds. My question was in the men's... Asher since 1956. A total of 428 wickets have now been taken by left-arm pace bowlers. How many of those were taken by Australians? The correct answer was 376 to England's 52. It is a curiosity of cricket how England have never had many left-arm pace bowlers. Ryan's sidebottom, the most effective of recent years, never played against Australia. So our scoring system, the closer

you get, the more runs you get. If you're within 10, you're going to have a 6. So 366 to 3.8, 6. That's a 6. In 25, so 351 to 401, excluding if you score a 6, you score 4. Within 40, you score 2, so between 3, 3, 3, 6 and 4, 26. Within 60, you can have a single, 316 to 424. I hope you didn't go more than the number of wickets taken. If you're more than 100 out, say 275 and under, you're out. Otherwise, it's a dot ball. Let's move on to today's question.

England scored at 4.97 per over in Perth. the second fastest the team has ever scored in an Ashes test behind the 5.49, England at racked up, when smacking 592 at Old Trafford in 2023. Australia went at 4.59 per over the fastest they had overscored in an Ashes test, and overall it was the fastest scoring Ashes match in history. In 2023, England scored at 5.75 across the series

in Australia at 3.35. My question is, in all the 57 Ashes series from 1901, 2, up to 2021, How many times did England score faster in the series than Australia? So in 57 Men's Ashes from the start of the 20th century to the end of the pre-Basbellion era in 2022, how many times were England the faster scoring team? I'll have the answer and another question for you tomorrow. And remember, you will now find this quiz only on BBC Sounds.

Do follow bore-by-ball coverage of every test from the Men's Ashes with TMS on BBC Sounds and five sports extra. Until tomorrow, goodbye. Thank you.