• Jason Gillespie was playing his 50th match. He became 39th Australian and the 265th player overall to do so.
• Andy Flower,on 24, became Zimbabwe’s highest run-scorer in the World Cup. He went past the tally of 567 runs (in 20 matches) by Dave Houghton. At the end of this match, Flower has 606 runs from 25 World Cup matches to his name.
• The 84 run stand between the Andy and Grant Flower was Zimbabwe’s best for the third wicket against Australia in the World Cup. The brothers went past the previous best of 31 runs between Jack Heron and Andy Pycroft at Nottingham in 1983.
• The partnership was broken as Grant Flower was run-out. This was the 20th instance of Grant Flower’s getting out in this fashion. He now holds the dubious distinction of getting run-out on most occasions for Zimbabwe. Grant was previously at level with brother Andy and Guy Whittall with 19 such instances.
• This was the 55th occasion when Andy Flower was involved in a run-out. He has got himself run-out on 19 occasions and his partners on 36 occasions. Only five other batsmen Steve Waugh (51), Ijaz Ahmed (45), Aravinda de Silva (40), Arjuna Ranatunga (39) and Javed Miandad (37) have got their partners run-out on more occasions than Andy Flower. India’s Mohammad Azharuddin and New Zealand’s Chris Harris have also been responsible for getting their partners run-out 36 times.
• Andy Blignaut (54) raced to his fifty off just 25 balls. This is the second fastest fifty for Zimbabwe in all ODIs after the 21-ball fifty by Douglas Marillier (ironically, getting a first ball duck in this match) against India at Faridabad in 2002.
• Blignaut’s fifty is the fastest for Zimbabwe in the World Cup. The previous fastest was the Cup was the 32-ball fifty by Andrew Waller against Sri Lanka at New Plymouth in 1992.
• The partnership of 34 runs between Tatenda Taibu and Heath Streak was Zimbabwe’s best for the eight wicket against Australia beating the previous best of 32 between Streak and Mluleki Nkala at Melbourne in 2001. Incidentally the previous highest eighth wicket stand for Zimbabwe against Australia in the World Cup was of 27 runs between Ian Butchart and Peter Rawson at Chennai in 1987.
• Heath Streak (28*, on 14) completed his 2000 runs in ODIs. In his 152nd match and 126th innings. He became the sixth Zimbabwean and the 105th batsman overall to reach this landmark.
• With 186 wickets to his credit, Streak also completed the coveted all-round double of 2000 runs and 100 wickets. He became the first Zimbabwean and 19th all-rounder in ODI history to accomplish this feat.
• The unbeaten stand of 92 runs between Damian Martyn and Darren Lehmann was Australia’s best for the fourth wicket against Zimbabwe. The pair obliterated the previous record stand of 70 runs between Steve Waugh and Michael Bevan at Ahmedabad in 1998.
• Australia has now won ten matches in a row since been beaten by Sri Lanka at Sydney in 2003.
• Zimbabwe has now suffered defeat in 19 consecutive matches against Australia. Interestingly Zimbabwe’s solitary win came in their first ever one-dayer way back in the 1983.

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Rajneesh Gupta)