• Sri Lanka did not play Mahela Jayawerdene in this match. The last time Jayawerdene missed a match for Sri Lanka was way back in 1999 when he did not appear against England at Lord’s on 14-05-1999 in 1999 World Cup opener. Since then he had played in 119 consecutive matches for Sri Lanka.
• Marvan Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya took their partnership aggregate for the first wicket past 3000 runs for the first wicket during their opening stand of 41 runs.. They also became the fifth opening pair in ODI history to do so after Indians Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar (5585 runs, ave. 49.42); West Indians Gordon Greenidge and DL Haynes (5150, 52.55); Australians Adam Gilchrist and Mark Waugh (3851, 41.41) and David Boon and Geoff Marsh (3524, 40.05). Atapattu and Jayasuriya have now aggregated 3010 runs (ave. 48.55) in 64 innings.
• Atapattu’s (103 not out) scored his tenth hundred in all matches and his first against Zimbabwe in 20 matches. His previous highest against Zimbabwe was 92 he made at Sharjah in 2001.
• Atapattu’s innings is the highest for Sri Lanka in a World Cup match against Zimbabwe. Aravinda de Silva had made 91 at Colombo SSC in 1996.
• Atapattu became the first Sri Lankan batsman and the 10th overall to carry his bat through the allocated overs in the World Cup. He joins Zimbabwean Craig Wishart and Canadian Ishwar Maraj to become the third batsman in this World Cup to do so.
• The two catches by Grant Flower has taken his tally of catches to 76 in 199 matches, which makes him the Zimbabwean fielder with most catches in a career in ODIs. He went past the previous record of 75 catches (in 187 matches) held by Alistair Campbell.
• Sanath Jayasuriya’s 3-30 equals Sri Lanka’s best bowling performance against Zimbabwe in a World Cup match. Former pace bowler Pramodaya Wickremasinghe had identical figures at Worcester in 1999. Incidentally Jayasuriya’s 3-30 was also the best by a Sri Lankan captain in the World Cup. Arjuna Ranatunga had figures of 2-31 against Kenya at Kandy in the 1996 World Cup.
• The two wickets by Chamida Vaas has taken his tally to 20 in this World Cup. He now equals the all-time record for the most wickets in a single World Cup held by New Zealander Geoff Allott and Australian Shane Warne in the 1999 World Cup.
• Sri Lanka have won all their four World Cup matches against Zimbabwe.

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Rajneesh Gupta)