• This match was the 2093rd Limited Overs International in cricket history.
• Mike Hussey was making his debut. He became 150th player to represent Australia in LOIs.
• Adam Gilchrist was captaining Australian side in the absence of Ricky Ponting. This was Gilchrist’s sixth match as captain. The last time he captained Australia in a LOI was against England at Adelaide on 19-01-2003. By an odd coincidence Gilchrist has lost toss in all the six matches, but went on to win the match on all six occasions !
• Yuvraj Singh (47) completed his 2000 runs when his score reached 5. He was playing his 86th match and 75th innings. Yuvraj became 15th Indian and 113th batsman overall to do so.
• At 22 years and 51 days, Yuvraj became the third youngest batsman in LOI history to reach the milestone of 2000 runs in a career. Only Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi (19 years 111 days) and fellow teammate Sachin Tendulkar (20 years 354 days) had completed their 2000 runs at a younger age than Yuvraj.
• Murali Kartik’s 32* is the fourth joint highest score a number 10 batsman for India. It is also the second highest for India against Australia. The accompanying table lists the highest individual scores by number 10 Indian batsmen:

  Score   Batsman            Opponent       Venue           Date
  46      Harbhajan Singh    Australia      Visakhapatnam   03-04-2001
  43      Javagal Srinath    Pakistan       Toronto         16-09-1998
  33*     Zaheer Khan        New Zealand    Cuttack         06-11-2003
  32*     Zaheer Khan        Zimbabwe       Jodhpur         08-12-2000
  32*     Murali Kartik      Australia      Perth           01-02-2004
  

• The 31-run partnership between Murali Kartik and L.Balaji is India's highest for the tenth wicket against Australia.The pair obliterated the previous record stand of 22 runs between Syed Kirmani and Balwinder Sandhu at Nottingham on 13-06-1983.
• The tenth wicket partnership of 31 runs between Kartik and Balaji was the highest partnership of Indian innings. This provided the 28th instance of tenth wicket partnership being the highest in one side’s whole innings. It was also the third such instance for India. The first such instance took place against South Africa at Sharjah on 22-03-2000 when Ajay Jadeja and Javagal Srinath added 62 runs in India’s total of 164. The second occasion was against England at the Oval on 09-07-2002 when Anil Kumble and Ashish Nehra put on 38 runs in team’s total of 165. On all three occasions India had to suffer defeat.
• The fourth wicket partnership of 122 runs between Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds is Australia’s best for this wicket against India in all matches. This obliterated the previous record partnership of 113 runs between Steve Waugh and Stuart Law at Colombo SSC on 06-09-1996.
• Gilchrist scored 75 runs after effecting three dismissals in Indian innings. He was performing the allround feat of scoring 75 runs and making three dismissals in the same match for the fifth time in his career. Though four other wicket-keepers have also achieved this distinction, none has done so more than once. Interestingly three of Gilchrist’s allround performances have come in this VB Series only. He made 172 besides taking three catches against Zimbabwe at Hobart on January 16. Gilchrist then made 95 and took three catches against India at Sydney on January 22.
• Gilchrist also became first wicket-keeper to aggregate 6000 runs in a career when his score reached 71. He was playing his 178th match as a ‘keeper. Gilchrist's overall aggregate in LOIs is 6213 runs from 183 appearances.
• Australia won the match with 108 balls to be spared. This provided the 14th instance of India facing defeat with opponents achieving the winning target with more than 100 balls still remaining to be bowled in their innings. Australia have now inflicted this disgrace upon India on four occasions. Incidentally India’s largest defeat (in terms of balls) had also come against Australia. They were beaten by the Aussies at Sydney on 08-01-1982 by nine wickets and 174 balls.
• Gilchrist was winning 17th man of the match award of his career. He has equalled fellow teammate and captain Ricky Ponting’s tally of MoM awards for Australia. Now only Mark Waugh (22), Steve Waugh (21) and Allan Border (18) have won more awards than Gilchrist for Australia.

(Article: Copyright © 2004 Rajneesh Gupta)