• This was the 50th match to be played in this World Cup.
• This was the 50th match to be played between the two sides.
• Umpire Rudi Koertzen was officiating in his 100th One-day international. He became fifth umpire to stand in 100 or more matches after Englishman David Shepherd (126), West Indian Steve Bucknor (109), South African Dave Orchard (102) and New Zealander Steve Dunne (100).
• Michael Bevan was appearing in his 25th match against Sri Lanka – maximum for Australia against Sri Lanka. Steve Waugh had appeared in 24 matches.
• With the wicket of Ricky Ponting, Chamida Vaas became the highest wicket-taker in a single World Cup. This was Vaas’ 21st wicket in this World Cup. He went past the previous record of 20 wickets jointly held by New Zealand’s Geoff Allott and Australia’s Shane Warne. Both Allott and Warne did so in 1999 World Cup. Vaas ended the World Cup with 23 wickets to his credit.
• The wicket of Ponting was also Vaas’ 27th against Australia in 25 matches. He thus became the highest wicket-taker for Sri Lanka against Australia, moving ahead of Muttiah Muralitharan who has 26 wickets from 17 matches. At the end of this match, Vaas has taken 29 wickets against Australia.
• The catch of Ponting by Sanath Jayasuriya was his 15th in the World Cup in 27 matches. He now has taken most catches for Sri Lanka in the World Cup. He went past the tally of 14 catches by Aravinda deSilva.
• Michael Bevan recorded fifth duck of his career. However this was only second time that he got out to the first ball he faced. He was dismissed in this fashion also against Sri Lanka (bowled by Upul Chandana) at Colombo RPS in 1999.
• Andrew Symonds (91*, on 3) completed his 1000 runs in ODIs. He became 178th batsman overall and 24th Australian to reach this landmark.
• Kumara Sangakkara, by effecting four dismissals in the match, equalled his own record of most dismissals by a Sri Lankan keeper in the World Cup. Sangakkara had made four dismissals against New Zealand at Bloemfontein earlier in this World Cup on February 10.
• Brett Lee’s 3-35 was the best bowling by an Australian against Sri Lanka in the World Cup obliterating Lee’s own figures of 3-52 at Centurion on 7-3-2003.
• Australia extended their record win sequence in the World Cup to eleven in a row, since 20-6-1999. This was also their 17th consecutive World Cup match without defeat (that includes 16 wins and one tie) since 27-5-1999. Australia also extended their record consecutive wins to 16 in ODIs since 11-1-2003.
• This was Australia’s fifth entry to the World Cup final after 1975, 1987, 1996 and 1999 and their third in consecutive tournaments.
• Aravinda de Silva declared his retirement from international cricket after this match. He had made his debut way back in 1984 (March 31 v New Zealand at Moratuwa). His career span of 18 years and 352 days is the second longest for any player in ODI history after Pakistan’s Javed Miandad whose ODI career spanned for 20 years and 273 days.

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Rajneesh Gupta)