• Saurav Ganguly was leading his side for the 100th time. He became second Indian after Mohammad Azharuddin (174 matches) and 11th player overall to do so.
• Umpire Steve Bucknor was officiating in his fourth consecutive World Cup final since 1992. He thus surpassed England’s Dickie Bird’s long standing record. Bird stood in the first three finals at Lord’s in 1975, 1979 and 1983. For the third time Englishman David Shepherd partnered Bucknor in a World Cup final.
• India played the same eleven for the fifth consecutive match in this World Cup since their Super-Six game against Kenya at Cape Town on March 07. This equals their existing record of playing the same side for most consecutive matches. India have played the same eleven in five consecutive matches on four occasions. Incidentally Pakistan hold the world record of playing most (seven) consecutive matches with unchanged side from 08-04-2002 to 24-04-2002.
• Ganguly, by asking opposition to bat first after winning the toss, became fifth captain to do so in a World Cup final after Australia’s Ian Chappell (1975), England’s Mike Brearley (1979),West Indies’ Clive Lloyd (1983) and Sri Lanka’s Arjuna Ranatunga (1996). Only Ranatunga has succeeded in winning the title.
• Ganguly was perhaps not aware of the fact that at this same ground, on April 16, 2000, Australia had made 205 batting first, and lost to South Africa. In 71 matches since then, Australia have never failed to defend any score in excess of 200; in that period, they have lost only 14 times and on 11 of those occasions, they lost chasing.
• Ricky Ponting (140*) scored 13th hundred of his career and third against India. He established the following records with his epic innings :
  • It was his highest score in World Cups. (Previous : 114 v Sri Lanka at Centurion in this World Cup on March 07.
  • It was his highest score against India in ODIs (previous : 115 at Melbourne in 2000).
  • It was the highest score by an Australian batsman against India in the World Cup (previous : 126, Mark Waugh at Mumbai in 1996).
  • It was the highest score by an Australian against India in ODIs (previous: 133*, Mark Waugh at Poona, in 2001.
  • It was the highest score by any batsman against India in the World Cup (previous : 137, Dennis Amiss, for England at Lord’s in 1975)
  • It was the highest score in a World Cup final (previous: 138*, Clive Lloyd, West Indies v England at Lord's in 1975)
  • It was the highest score made by an Australian captain in ODIs (previous : 138, Greg Chappell, v New Zealand at Sydney in 1980)
• Ponting became the leading run scorer in World Cup finals with 209 runs. He went ahead of West Indian Viv Richard’s tally of 176 runs.
• Ponting's 8 sixes were the most by any batsman in a World Cup innings. The previous record was of 7 sixes by West Indian Viv Richards against Sri Lanka at Karachi in 1987 and India’s Saurav Ganguly against Sri Lanka at Taunton in 1999.
• Damien Martyn (88) made his highest score against India in ODIs. His previous best was 30 at Sharjah in 1998 and at Melbourne in 2000.It was also his highest score in World Cups. The previous highest was 67 (unbeaten) against Holland at Potchefstroom in this World Cup on February 20.
• The unbeaten partnership of 234 runs between Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn established the following new records :
  • It was the highest third wicket partnership at this ground in ODIs (previous: 106 runs, Hansie Cronje & Jonty Rhodes for South Africa v Australia in 1994)
  • It was the highest partnership for third wicket for Australia for India in ODIs (previous: 137 runs, Dean Jones & Allan Border at Adelaide in 1991).
  • It was the highest partnership for any wicket in a World Cup final (previous: 149 runs, 4th wkt, Rohan Kanhai & Clive Lloyd, West India v Australia at Lord's in 1975)
  • It was the highest partnership for any wicket at this ground in ODIs (previous: 193 runs for 1st wkt, Saurav Ganguly & Sachin Tendulkar for India v South Africa, in 2001).
  • It was the highest partnership for any wicket by Australia in World Cups (previous: 207, 3rd wkt, Mark Waugh and Steve Waugh, v Kenya at Visakhapatnam in 1996).
  • It was the highest partnership for any wicket for Australia against India in ODIs (previous : 219 runs for 2nd wkt, Matthew Hayden & Ricky Ponting at Visakhapatnam in 2001).
  • It was the highest partnership for third wicket for Australia in ODIs (previous: 224*, Dean Jones & Allan Border, v Sri Lanka at Adelaide in 1985.
  • It was the highest partnership for any wicket by Australia in ODIs (previous: 225 runs for 2nd wkt, Adam Gilchrist & Ricky Ponting, v England at Melbourne in 2002).
  • It was the highest partnership for third wicket against India in ODIs (previous : 230, Saeed Anwar & Ijaz Ahmed, for Pakistan at Dhaka in 1998).
• This partnership, however, just failed to beat alltime record partnership for the third wicket in ODIs. Ironically India’s Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar had added 237 runs (unbeaten) against Kenya at Bristol in 1999 World Cup.
• Australia's total (359-2) set the following new records:
  • It was the highest total achieved in a World Cup final (Previous : 291-8 , West Indies v Australia at Lord’s in 1975).
  • It was the highest total made on this ground in ODIs (previous: 310-8, Australia v Pakistan in this World Cup on February 11.
  • It was the highest total by any side against India in final of a tournament in ODIs (previous : 325-5 by England in NatWest Trophy Final at Lord’s in 2002).
  • It was the highest total for Australia in World Cups (previous: 328-5 v Sri Lanka at the Oval in 1975)
  • It was the highest ever total made by any team against India in the World Cup (previous : 334-4 , England at Lord's in 1975).
  • It was the highest total for Australia against India in ODIs (previous: 338-4 at Visakhapatnam in 2001).
  • It was the highest total in the final of a tournament in ODIs (previous : 339-4, Sri Lanka v Pakistan, in the first final of Independence Cup at Mohali in 1997).
  • It was the highest total for Australia against any side in ODIs (previous: 349-6 v New Zealand at Christchurch, in 2000).
  • It was the highest total for any side against India (previous: 349-9 by New Zealand at Rajkot in 1999).
• Australia’s total was the eighth highest in all ODIs and fourth highest in World Cup.
• Despite making only 4 runs in this match, Tendulkar ended the tournament with 673 runs to his credit. Only Australia’s Greg Chappell has aggregated more runs in a series / tournament. Chappell aggregated 686 runs in 14 matches in the 1980-81 Benson & Hedges World Series Cup.
• Srinath, by conceding 87 runs in his ten overs (RpO 8.70) recorded most expensive figures of his career. He had conceded 71 runs in his nine overs against West Indies at Ahmedabad in 2002.
• Srinath’s figures are the most expensive by an Indian in an ODI. T. Kumaran had conceded 86 runs in his 10 overs against Pakistan at Dhaka in 2000.
• Srinath’s figures are also the most expensive by an Indian in a World Cup match. Karsan Ghavri had conceded 83 runs against England at Lord’s in 1975, however Ghavri bowled eleven overs. The previous worst performance for India in a ten-over spell was by Ashish Nehra who conceded 74 runs against Pakistan in this World Cup on March 01.
• The 37 extras conceded by India were the most given away by a team in a World Cup final. The previous highest was 32 extras by England v Pakistan at Melbourne in 1992.
• Sehwag (82, on 3) completed his 2000 runs in One-Day Internationals. He became 106th batsman overall and 14th Indian to reach this landmark.
• Rahul Dravid has now played 106 consecutive innings without getting dismissed on duck. This takes him past Kepler Wessels who had a sequence of 105 ‘duck-less’ innings. Now only Martin Crowe, with 119 innings, is ahead of Dravid. The last time Dravid was dismissed without scoring was way back in 1999 against Australia at Colombo SSC in Aiwa Cup.
• Brett Lee’s two wickets in the match took his tally to 22 in 10 matches in this World Cup – most by an Australian in a single World Cup. He surpassed Shane Warne’s tally of 20 wickets during the 1999 World Cup. Glenn McGrath also surpassed Warne’s tally to aggregate 21 wickets in the tournament..
• The match aggregate of 593 for the loss of 12 wickets was the highest in a World Cup final. This obliterated the previous highest of 565 for the loss of 18 wickets between West Indies and Australia at Lord’s in 1975.
• Australia became the first team to win the World Cup on three occasions – in 1987, 1999 and 2003. West Indies have done so on two occasions – in 1975 and 1979.
• Australia became the third team after West Indies (in 1975 and 1979) and Sri Lanka (1996) to win the World Cup without losing a single match in the tournament. However Australia have played more matches than any other side in a World Cup.
• Sachin Tendulkar was declared Man of the Tournament. This was the 11th time that Tendulkar won the Man of the Tournament award in his career- most by any player in ODI history. Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya, with 8 awards, holds the second place.

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Rajneesh Gupta)