• Andrew Flintoff was appearing in his 50th match. He became the 25th Englishman to do so.
• Shoaib Akhtar top scored for Pakistan with 43 off just 16 balls at number 11.This provided only the fifth instance of a number 11 batsman top scoring in an innings.
• Shoaib Akhtar's 43 is now the highest score made by a number eleven batsman in ODIs. The previous best was 37 by West Indian Joel Garner against India at Manchester during the 1983 World Cup. Incidentally, the previous best score by a Pakistani number 11 was the unbeaten 34 by Mushtaq Ahmed against South Africa at Colombo SSC in 2000.
• The previous highest score by a number 11 against England was the 24 by Indian Ashish Nehra at Chester-le-Street in 2002. For the record, the highest score by any number 11 in South Africa was the 33 by another Pakistani Waqar Younis against the home team at Durban in 1998.
• The 54 runs stand between Saqlain Mushtaq and Shoaib Akhtar was the third best for Pakistan for last wicket. The pair eclipsed the previous best for this wicket for Pakistan against England, which was the unbeaten 35 - achieved twice - by Javed Miandad and Salim Jaffer and Imran Khan and Mohsin Kamal at Perth and Birmingham in 1987 respectively. Pakistan's best for the tenth wicket in the World Cup was the 28 between Abdul Qadir and Rashid Khan against New Zealand at Birmingham in 1983.
• This was also the highest for the tenth wicket against England in the World Cup bettering the previous best of 33 runs by Rumesh Ratnayake and Vinodan John at Leeds in 1983. In fact, there has been only one bigger partnership for the tenth wicket against England in ODIs. The best still remains as the unbeaten 106 between West Indians Viv Richards and Michael Holding at Manchester in 1984.
• The 4-29 by James Anderson was the second best figures by an English bowler against Pakistan in the World Cup after the 4-15 by Mike Hendrick at Leeds in 1979.
• This win was England's first at this ground in four matches, while this was Pakistan's fifth loss in five matches.
• This was England’s first win over Pakistan in the last six matches. The former had lost five matches in a row to Pakistan before this one.
• This was Pakistan’s biggest defeat in the World Cup in terms of runs. The team had lost to Australia by 82 runs at Johannesburg in this World Cup earlier. Meanwhile this was England biggest win in the World Cup in a 50-over match. The team had beaten Sri Lanka by 106 runs at Ballarat in 1992.

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Rajneesh Gupta)