It was the 1550th Test match in cricket history
Rajneesh Gupta11-Jul-2001It was the 1550th Test match in cricket history.It was Australia’s 615th and England’s 782nd Test match.It was the 297th match between these two sides. The record now reads :Australia 118, England 93 and drawn 86.It was the 145th match between these two sides in England. The recordnow reads : Australia 44,England 40 and drawn 61.It was the 37th match on this ground and 11th between these two sides.The record now reads : Australia 3,England 4,drawn 4.Usman Afzaal, the Pakistan born left handed batsman and slow left armbowler, was making his Test debut for England. He became 606th playerto play for England.Steve Bucknor and George Sharp were officiating in their 57th and 14thmatch respectively.The 103 run-partnership between Alec Stewart and Andrew Caddick wasthe 15th century partnership for the tenth wicket in Test cricket. Itwas the fourth century partnership for England in all Tests. It wasalso the best for England against Australia at home soil.Mark Waugh when reached 30,became fifth leading run scorer forAustralia surpassing Greg Chappell’s run-aggregate of 7110 from 87Tests. Mark at the end of this match has aggregated 7130 runs from 112matches.Steve Waugh (105) when reached 35,completed his 9000 runs in his 136thTest and 216th innings. He became only the third batsman in Testhistory to reach this milestone after Indian Sunil Gavaskar (10122runs in 125 Tests) and former team mate Allan Border (11174 runs in156 Tests).The century was Steve’s 26th in 136th Test and eighth against England.This puts him on the third place alongwith Allan Border and ArthurMorris for Australia. Now only incomparable Don Bradman (19) and GregChappell (9) are ahead of Steve in scoring hundreds against England.The hundred was Steve’s sixth in England which puts him ahead of AllanBorder and Mark Taylor who each has scored five hundreds. Only DonBradman (11) have scored more hundreds in England for Australia.Stevehas now scored the most hundreds among the contemporary batsmen movingahead of India’s Sachin Tendulkar who has 25 centuries from 84 Teststo his credit.Damien Martyn (105) scored his maiden Test hundred in his 12th Test.His previous highest was 89* against New Zealand at Hamilton in1999-00.Martyn became the 20th Australian to score a century in his debut Testagainst England. He also became the 13th Australian to do so in firstinnings of his debut Test against England. Later Gilchrist emulatedMartyn to become 21st Australian to score a hundred in his first Testagainst England.Adam Gilchrist (152) on 6 completed his 1000 runs in Test cricket. Hewas playing his 18th Test and 26th innings. He became 364th batsman inTest cricket and 79th Australian to do so. Gilchrist is also thefourth Australian wicketkeeper to reach this milestone after Ian Healy(4356 runs in 119 matches), Rod Marsh (3633 runs in 93 Tests) and`Bert’ Oldfield (1427 runs in 54 matches).Gilchrist’s batting average of 52.09 is the highest among the 32wicketkeepers who have aggregated 1000 or more runs in a career. Theprevious record was on the name of Zimbabwean Andy Flower who hasscored 3760 runs in 48 matches at an average of 51.51.Gilchrist’s innings is the highest by an Australian keeper againstEngland in all matches. He obliterated Ian Healy’s 134 at Brisbane in1998-99. Interestingly the previous record of highest score by anAustralian keeper on English soil was also held by Ian Healy. Healyhad made 102* at Manchester in 1993. Gilchrist’s innings is also thethird highest by any keeper against England after India’s BudhiKunderan (192,Madras,1963-64) and West Indies’ Clyde Walcott(168*,Lord’s,1950).Gilchrist’s innings is the second highest by an Australian keeper inall matches after Ian Healy’s alltime highest 161* against West Indiesat Brisbane in 1996-97.Gilchrist’s five sixes equalled the existing record of most sixes inan innings for Australia against England. Sam Loxton at Leeds in 1948 had also hit five sixes. Joe Darling at Manchester in 1902 and 1905 had five hits into the crowd but before 1910 these hits were only worth four each as a player had to hit a ball out of the ground to record a six.Gilchrist scored 22 runs off Mark Butcher’s ninth over (128th over ofAustralian innings). The sequence : 6 0 6 4 6 0. Gilchrist now holdsthe Australian record of scoring most runs in a single over. Theprevious record was of 21 runs scored made on six occasions . Howeverfive of these instances came in eight ball overs. The only instance of21 runs scored in a six ball over for Australia came in the matchagainst England at Lord’s in 1948 when Don Bradman and Sid Barnesscored off Jim Laker.The three centuries in Australia’s only innings equalled the record ofmost centuries by a team in an innings against England. This was the15th such occasion against England . Australia has done so againstEngland on as many as seven occasions. The last time three centurieswere scored in an innings against England was way back in 1993 atLeeds also by Australia.Nasser Hussain (in second innings) was getting retired hurt for thethird time in his career. The other such occasions for him wereagainst India at Nottingham in 1996 when he was hit by a Srinathdelivery and against Pakistan at Lahore in 2000-01 when he failed toconnect a hook off Wasim Akram.Darren Gough bagged a pair of spectacles (duck in each innings) forthe second time in his career. Interestingly his only other pair hadalso come against Australia at Leeds in 1997.When Shane Warne dismissed Gough in second innings, it was the 50thinstance for him of dismissing a batsman without letting him open hisaccount. Warne became second Australian after Glenn McGrath and 12thbowler in Test annals to do so. The record is jointly held by WestIndian Courtney Walsh and Pakistani Wasim Akram. Walsh and Akram havedismissed 79 batsmen each on zero.Steve Waugh has now appeared in 63 matches which Australia has won.With this he equalled West Indian Viv Richards’ Test record of mostappearances in `won’ matches. Incidentally Steve already holds therecord of aggregating most runs in `won’ matches. The following tablelists the players with most appearances in `won’ matches :PlayerForMIRunsHSAveCtStRWBestAveIVA RichardsWI6390430029152.4469-56892/2463.11SR WaughAus6392517220073.8953-722295/2824.90ME WaughAus61944206153*50.0796-889213/4042.33CG GreenidgeWI5797465322654.7463-400/4-CA WalshWI526234530*8.2112-47142397/3719.72AR BorderAus50743186200*51.3966-380187/4621.11SK WarneAus48568958618.2745-55502558/7121.76CEL AmbroseWI44605884412.5112-38632298/4516.87GD McGrathAus4443230396.9713-43582196/1719.90MC CowdreyEng4363308718255.1361-100/1-CH LloydWI43633337242*58.5451-5642/1714.00MD MarshallWI435511069223.0420-42642547/2216.79RB RichardsonWI4369305918250.1557-800/0-MJ SlaterAus4271345221953.9418-200/2-RN HarveyAus4166325320454.2236-3211/832.00Shane Warne has now taken 255 wickets in `won’ matches – most by anybowler in Test history. He surpassed West Indian Malcolm Marshall’saggregate of 254 wickets. The following table lists the leadingbowlers in this category of statistics :BowlerForMBMdRWAveBest5WI10WMSRERSK WarneAus4813932729555025521.768/7111354.6439.84MD MarshallWI439678360426425416.797/2217438.1044.06CA WalshWI5211059442471423919.727/3710246.2742.63CEL AmbroseWI4410173483386322916.878/4513344.4237.97GD McGrathAus4410560518435821919.906/179348.2241.27Wasim AkramPak398814351384721118.237/11913241.7743.65DK LilleeAus317923246370920318.277/8317639.0346.81AA DonaldSA336653290314118716.808/7114335.5847.21Waqar YounisPak316624241337718618.167/7613435.6150.98FS TruemanEng347224297306317717.318/3111240.8142.40 Mark Waugh ,at the end of this match, has taken 156 catches in thefield ,same as Allan Border and only one less than Mark Taylor.The win by an innings and 119 runs was Australia’s 18th largestagainst England by innings marginfourth largest in England.