As the Second Test at the Adelaide Oval beckons, much has been made of the potential for buckets of runs at the famed batsmen's paradise. After a drawn match at the Gabba which saw two 300-run partnerships and a score of 1/517, Adelaide looks set to repeat the dose of torment for the bowlers.

Alistair Cook, Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott all hit their straps for the visitors in the First Test while Michael Hussey, Brad Haddin, Simon Katich and Ricky Ponting got amongst the runs as well. What does Adelaide hold for these batting tyros? Will the bowlers gain a reprieve?

Perhaps the history will give a few clues.

Sixty-eight Test matches have been played at the Adelaide Oval. Half of these matches have been won by Australia, 16 by the touring side and 18 have resulted in draws. A total of 29 Ashes Tests have been played at Adelaide, with the home side coming out on top 16 times to England's eight with five draws.

Naturally, the list of run-scorers at the Adelaide Oval is dominated by Australians and,.ominously for England, the man at the top of that list, Ricky Ponting (1433 runs @ 59.71) will lead the Aussies into battle on Friday morning. Ponting has also scored the most centuries in Adelaide of any player, with five. Another worrying sign for the visitors is Michael Clarke's Bradman-esque average of 102.40 at Adelaide Oval.

Of the touring Englishmen, only Paul Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen, have scored over 100 runs at the ground. Twenty-seven English centuries have been made there, compared to 37 Australian tons in Ashes Test matches..

A triple century would be required to break the highest individual innings at the Adelaide Oval, as Sir Donald Bradman's 299* stands atop that list. Collingwood's 206 in the 2006/07 Ashes Series is the highest individual English score.

The highest total made by the English at Adelaide was the 6(dec)/551 in the 2006/07 Second Test. Australia's highest dig against England was the mammoth 582 made in the second innings of the Third Test of the 1920/21 Ashes Series.

But is it all doom and gloom for the bowlers? Apart from some notable exceptions, it is unfortunately so. The record for the best bowling figures in an innings at Adelaide is over 100 years old! It was set by Albert Trott who uniquely played for both Australia and England. On this particular occasion, Trott was playing for Australia and took 8/43 after contributing a valuable 38* and 72* with the bat in Australia's two innings.

If a horses-for-courses policy applied, Australian selectors would be wise to include Mitchell Johnson in their line-up for the Second Test as the spearhead is the highest wicket-taker of any current player in tests at the Adelaide Oval. His 19 wickets have come at an average of 23.79 and his best figures at the ground are 5/103.

Australians have taken just 22 five wicket-hauls in an innings at the Adelaide Oval during an Ashes test. For England, it has happened 16 times. Matthew Hoggard was the last to do it for the visitors in 2006/07. Before him it was Derek Underwood in 1974/75. James Anderson is the only current Englishman to have played at the Adelaide Oval, but his figures of 1/108 in his only test there so far were hardly flattering.

Shane Warne has taken the most wickets of any bowler at the Adelaide Oval with 56, but even the Sheikh of Tweak had a somewhat-forgettable average of 30.45 at the ground. John Briggs, with 16 at an average of 22.19, has the most wickets of any Englishman. Historically, bowlers have gone for 3.07 an over and have had to wait 35.58 runs for every wicket.

One thing that the two opposing captains should note is that of the few in their position that were brave enough to send the opposition in to bat at Adelaide, only Clive Lloyd's dominant West Indian side of 1981/82 has ever claimed victory.