9th Match,Australia v England, NatWest Series, Statistical Highlights
- It was the 1726th ODI in cricket history.
- It was Australia’s 486th and England’s 331st match.
- It was the 70th match between these two sides. The record now reads :Australia 37,England 31,tied one and abandoned one.
- Umpires David Constant and George Sharp were officiating in their 33rdand 24th match respectively.
- Robert Croft and Alan Mullally were playing their 50th match. Theybecame 21st and 22nd Englishman to reach this milestone. A total of232 players have now made 50 or more appearances in shorter version ofthe game.
- Glenn McGrath has now taken 28 wickets in 17 matches in England whichequals the Shane Warne’s record for Australia. Incidentally WestIndian Andy Roberts with 26 wickets from 21 games holds the record ofmost wickets by a visiting player in England.
- Gilchrist’s innings (80) was the highest by an Australian wicketkeeperagainst England . This obliterated Richard Robinson’s 70 at this sameground on June 6,1977.It was also the third highest innings by awicketkeeper against England in all matches after Sri Lankan RomeshKaluwitharana’s 102* at Colombo SSC on March 27,2001 and West IndianJunior Murray’s 86 at this same ground on May 26,1995.
- Australia won the match with 119 balls to spare. This was theEngland’s third heaviest defeat in terms of balls spared by theopposing side while achieving the winning target. Interestingly allthe three instances have come against Australia. The accompanyingtable lists England’s worst such defeats :
Balls
Winner
Total
Loser
Total
Venue
Date
188
Aus
94-6
Eng
93
Headingley
18-06-1975
147
Aus
95-4
Eng
94
Melbourne
07-02-1979
119
Aus
177-2
Eng
176
The Oval
21-06-2001
102
Pak
84-2
Eng
81-9
Edgbaston
03-09-1974
97
SL
166-0
Eng
165-9
Colombo (SSC)
27-03-2001
88
SL
183-2
Eng
180
Moratuwa
20-03-1993
84
WI
207-4
Eng
202-8
Scarborough
26-08-1976
76
WI
190-2
Eng
189-9
The Oval
07-09-1973 - England has now suffered defeat in 11 consecutive matches. England’slast win in an ODI had come in the first match of three match seriesagainst Pakistan at Karachi on October 24,2000 while chasing a targetof 300 plus. England then lost the remaining two matches on thatseries, lost all three against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka and then six ina row in this NatWest Series.
- Australia has now beaten England in seven matches in a row since theCarlton & United World Series Cup match at Adelaide on January26,1999. It is Australia’s best run against England. The previous bestwinning streak for Australia against England was of five matches fromJune 6,1981 to January 23,1983. However it is still not a record inAustralia-England matches. England had beaten Australia in eightconsecutive matches from December 8,1979 to June 4,1981.
- England bowed out of the series without registering a win despiteplaying as many as six games. The only other similar instance ofEngland not winning a game in a competition comprising of at leastthree teams (excluding those played on knock out basis) had come in1984-85 World Championship of Cricket in Australia when England lostall its three matches.
- Ricky Ponting was winning his 11th Man of the Match award – his secondagainst England.