Statistical highlights - Fifth ODI, at Goa

Mohandas Menon

•  The Nehru Stadium at Goa was hosting its fifth LOI match since its first in the Nehru Cup tournament on October 25, 1989. Interestingly, this venue which is a football stadium, has hosted just a single first-class match - a Ranji Trophy encounter between Goa and Tamil Nadu in January 1995. It is the only cricket venue in the world where more internationals have been played than first-class matches.

•  This was the 100th occasion Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar were opening the Indian innings together. They become the second pair in LOI history to do so after the West Indian pair of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes who has opened together on 102 occasions from 1979 to 1991. The Indian pair has been opening the innings since October 23, 1996 at Jaipur in the Titan Cup match against South Africa. They had begun their partnership in an auspicious manner by putting on 126 runs.

•  VVS Laxman's 101 was his maiden hundred of his career in his 18th match. He betters his previous best of 83 he made at Indore on March 31, 2001 in the third match of this series.

•  Incidentally, this was the first ever individual hundred scored at this ground. The previous highest was the 96 by Sri Lankan Aravinda deSilva against Australia on October 25, 1989, which incidentally was the first match to be played at this venue.

•  The partnership of 105 runs between Ganguly and Laxman was the best at this ground for the second wicket bettering the previous best of 67 runs between West Indians Stuart Williams and Brian Lara against New Zealand on October 26, 1994.

•  The partnership of 97 runs between Laxman and Rahul Dravid was also the best at this ground for the third wicket eclipsing the previous best of 61 runs between Sri Lanka's Roshan Mahanama and Aravinda deSilva against India on December 28, 1997.

•  Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne finished the tour on a disappointing note when he finished with figures of 8-0-62-0. His economy rate of 7.75 represents the worst bowling performance of his LOI career spanning 162 matches since his debut in this form of cricket in March 1993. Interestingly, this previous worst bowling also came against India during the World Cup at the Oval on June 4, 1999. His figures were 6.2-0-49-0 - an economy rate of 7.74, which was just marginally better than his performance in this match.

•  India's total of 265-6 was comfortably the highest at this ground bettering the 229-5 by Sri Lanka against India December 28, 1997. However India's record total lasted for just four hours before the Australians achieved their winning total of 269-6 in 48 overs.

•  Matthew Hayden during his innings of 36 reached a personal milestone by aggregating over 1000 runs during the tour in all forms of the game. He had scored 160 runs in the three tour matches; 549 runs in three Test matches and finished the one-day series with 303 runs in four matches - in all aggregating 1012 runs in ten matches.

•  When he had the Australian captain Steve Waugh caught, Tendulkar captured his 100th wicket of his career. He becomes the eighth Indian and the 58th bowler in LOI history to do so. By achieving this landmark in his 268th match, Tendulkar needed the maximum matches to reach his 100th wicket among the 58 bowlers. West Indian Viv Richards, who used to bowl off-spin needed 162 matches for his 100th wicket in March 1989.

•  However Tendulkar becomes the first all-rounder to score 10000 runs and capture 100 wickets in LOIs. For the record, the maximum runs scored by any other all-rounder with over 100 wickets is by Australian Steve Waugh with 7182 runs and 195 wickets in 310 matches.

•  The unbeaten match winning partnership of 67 runs between Michael Bevan and Ian Harvey was by a long way the best for the seventh wicket by any team at this ground.

•  Australia has now achieved the unique distinction of being the first team since 1987-88 to beat India in a bilateral one-day series at home. West Indies had trashed the home team 6-1 in the seven-match Charminar Challenge during the 1987-88 series. For the record the other teams to beat India at home in a bilateral series are: West Indies in 1983-84 (5-0), Australia in 1984-85 (3-0 in five matches), England in 1984-85 (4-1) and Pakistan in 1986-87 (5-1).

•  Incidentally, during their last tour of India in 1998, the Australians had won the tri-nation Pepsi series by beating India in the final at Delhi on April 14, 1998.

•  Playing his 159th match, Bevan won his only ninth 'man of the match' award of his career.

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