• This was the 96th Test between these two sides. The record now reads : Australia 43, West Indies 31, drawn 21 and tied one.
• This was the 39th Test between these two sides in West Indies. The record now reads : Australia 13, West Indies 13, drawn 13.
• Steve Waugh was playing his 157th Test. With this he became the most capped player in Test history surpassing countryman Allan Border’s tally of 156 matches.
• Devon Smith was making his Test debut. He became 247th player to appear for West Indies in a Test.
• Shivnarine Chanderpaul (100) scored his 7th hundred in 64th Test. His hundred came off only 69 balls – the third fastest hundred in Test cricket. Only Viv Richards (110* for West Indies vs England at St. John’s in 1985-86 ; hundred off 56 balls) and Jack Gregory (119 for Australia vs South Africa at Johannesburg in 1921-22 ; hundred off 67 balls) have raced to three figure-mark off lesser balls.
• Brad Hogg was making a comeback into Australian side after about six years missing 78 matches in between. He last played for Australia way back in 1996-97 against India at Delhi. He now holds the Australian record of longest gap in a career in terms of matches. The previous record was held by Bob Simpson who missed 71 matches in between his two appearances in 1967-68 and 1977-78. Incidentally Pakistan’s Younis Ahmed holds the world record of longest gap in a Test career in terms of matches . After making his debut and playing two Tests against New Zealand in 1969-70 he made his third Test appearance against India in 1986-87 missing 104 matches in between !
• Darren Ganga (0 & 113) became 16th West Indian (on 19th occasion) to make a hundred and a duck in the same match. Gary Sobers, Viv Richards and Desmond Haynes have done so twice. Ganga also became fifth West Indian to do so against Australia.
• Chanderpaul (31) completed his 4000 runs in Test cricket in his 64th Test. He became 13th West Indian and 80th batsman overall to do so.
• Brian Lara (110) completed his 2000 runs against Australia. He became fifth West Indian and only the 15th batsman overall to do so. Lara is the fastest among the West Indians to reach this landmark having taken only 24 Tests. Clive Lloyd,with 27 Tests, was the previous record holder. However Lara needed 44 innings as against Lloyd’s 43 (Richie Richardson also did so in 43 innings and 27 Tests).
• The duck in second innings was 24th for Mervyn Dillon in his 31st Test and 56 innings. He is now heading towards an entirely unwanted record of most ducks in a career. Now only Courtney Walsh (43), Sahne Warne (27), Curtly Ambrose (26) and Glenn McGrath (26) have aggregated more ducks in a career than Dillon. New Zealander Danny Morrison has 24 ducks to his (dis)credit.

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Rajneesh Gupta)