• This was the 1659th Test match in cricket history.
• This was the 125th Test match between these two sides. The record now reads : England 52, South Africa 25, drawn 48.
• The wicket of Michael Vaughan in first innings was the 300th for Shaun Pollock. The 19th man to take 300 wickets in test history, he joined compatriot Allan Donald (330 wickets) on the list, his wickets costing just over 20 each. No bowler on that list ended their career with a better average.
• Pollock also became the seventh allrounder in Test chronicles to have completed 300 or more wickets and aggregated 2000 or more runs. He joined the ranks of England’s Ian Botham (5200 runs + 383 wickets in 102 Tests), New Zealand’s Richard Hadlee (3124 + 431 in 86), India’s Kapil Dev (5248 + 434 in 131), Pakistan’s Imran Khan (3807 + 362 in 88), Pakistan’s Wasim Akram (2898 + 414 in 104) and Australia’s Shane Warne (2238 + 491 in 107).
• The partnership of 99 runs between Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison was the highest ninth wicket partnership against South Africa. The pair obliterated the 80-run partnership between Azhar Mahmood and Shoaib Akhtar for Pakistan at Durban in 1997-98. Incidentally England’s previous best for this wicket against South Africa was 71 between Henry Wood and John Hearne at Cape Town in 1891-92.
• England’s total of 604-9 declared was their third highest against South Africa after 654 for five at Durban in 1938-39 and 608 at Johannesburg in 1948-49. England’s total was also the fifth highest by any side against South Africa.
• Marcus Trescothick (219) became 27th Englishman to score a double hundred in Test cricket. This was the 41st multiple hundred for England.
• Trescothick’s innings was the fourth highest by any batsman against South Africa and the highest since their re-admission into Test cricket.
• Andrew Flintoff completed his 1000 Test runs when his score reached 29. He was playing his 26th Test and 41st innings. Flintoff became 84th batsman from England and 387th batsman overall to do so.Interestingly more than half of his runs have been scored against South Africa.
• Graeme Smith ended the series with 714 runs in nine innings at an average of 79.33. His series-aggregate is the second highest by a South African batsman after Aubrey Faulkner’s 732 made in 10 innings of five matches against Australia in 1910-11.
• The series ended at level with both teams winning two matches apiece. Out of a total of 188 series played till date consisting of at least four matches, only 11 have ended at 2-2 scores. The details :

  Season      Team1   Team2   Host    Mts   Score
  1882-83     Aus     Eng     Aus     4     2-2
  1927-28     SA      Eng     SA      5     2-2
  1952-53     Aus     SA      Aus     5     2-2
  1953-54     WI      Eng     WI      5     2-2
  1956-57     SA      Eng     SA      5     2-2
  1961-62     SA      NZ      SA      5     2-2
  1972        Eng     Aus     Eng     5     2-2
  1991        Eng     WI      Eng     5     2-2
  1995        Eng     WI      Eng     6     2-2
  1998-99     WI      Aus     WI      4     2-2
  2003        Eng     SA      Eng     5     2-2
  

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Rajneesh Gupta)