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Frank Worrell Trophy, 1st Test, West Indies v Australia, Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad March 5-9, 1999

Steve Waugh became the 40th player to captain Australia in Tests. And by doing so while playing in his 112th match he became the most experienced player to lead a side in Test history. The previous record was held by India's Dilip Vengsarkar, who was playing in his 96th match when he led his team at Delhi against the West ndies in 1987-88. The previous Australian record was held by Neil Harvey who captained his team for the first and only occasion at Lord's in 1961 while appearing in his 71st Test match.

Pedro Collins, Suruj Ragoonath and David Joseph became the 225th, 226th and 227th West Indians to appear in Tests.

Interestingly, out of the many pace bowlers to come out of the Caribbeans, Pedro Collins becomes the only second "genuine" left-arm pace bowler to appear for the West Indies in Tests. The only other bowler was Tyrell Johnson who appeared for the West Indies in just one Test match, way back in 1939 against England. He also had the unique distinction of capturing a wicket off his very first ball. Of-course there were other left arm medium pacers such as Bernard Julien, Gary Sobers and Frank Worrell, but they enjoyed the "all-rounder" status and also had to switch to spin when the situation demanded.

On the first day at lunch, Australia had scored only 51 runs for two wickets in 29 overs and scored a further 51 runs for the loss of two more wickets in 29 overs in the second session. The score then was 102-4 in 58 overs. Opener Matthew Elliott who was making a come-back, was 15 (not out) at lunch, and then moved his score to 37 not out at tea. This perhaps was one of the slowest batting performance by an Australian before lunch on the opening day in Tests. Jim Burke (28*) took his score to just nine runs in 90 minutes before lunch on the fifth day at Brisbane against England in the 1958-59 Ashes series.

Courtney Walsh became the third bowler in Test history to capture 400 wickets when he had Ian Healy leg-before in the first innings. Playing in his 107th match, Walsh joined New Zealander Richard Hadlee and the record holder Kapil Dev to this exclusive club. Hadlee was playing in his 80th Test when he reached this milestone against India in 1989-90 (victim: Sanjay Manjrekar, 2nd innings), while Kapil Dev need 115 Tests to do so at Perth in 1991-92 (victim: Mark Taylor, 2nd innings). With both Kapil and Hadlee ending their career with 434 and 431 wickets respectively, Walsh (with 404 wickets at the end of this match) now needs only 31 more wickets to become the highest wicket taker in Test history.

Glenn McGrath's 39 was the 25th score of 39-plus by a number 11 batsman in Tests. It was the sixth highest score by an Australian number eleven batsman in Tests. McGrath's previous highest score was 24 also against West Indies at Sydney in 1996-97. Curiously enough, McGrath in his previous four innings (in the Ashes series at Melbourne and Sydney) had four successive 'ducks', including two consecutive 'pairs'.

David Joseph's 50 was the first 50-plus score by a West Indian batsman on debut since Sherwin Campbell's 51 against New Zealand at Christchurch in 1994-95. Interestingly, since the last 20 years, only three West Indian batsmen have managed 50-plus scores in their first innings of their Test debut. Shivnaraine Chanderpaul was the only other with 62 runs against England at Georgetown in 1993-94.

Stuart MacGill captured his 50th Test wicket when he claimed Roland Holder in the first innings. By doing so in his only 9th Test match, MacGill equalled the record by taking least number of matches to get to that landmark by an Australian spinner. Right-arm leg-spinner Arthur Mailey also needed 9 matches for his 50th dismissal in 1921-22. Among the other spinners, West Indian Alf Valentine needed least number of matches - 8 matches (in 1951-52), while England's Bobby Peel (in 1888) like Mailey and MacGill needed nine matches.

MacGill recorded the 72nd "pair" (i.e. ducks in each innings of a match) for Australia. Incidentally MacGill now has four "ducks" in the last five innings. MacGill, in fact missed the dubious distinction of recording a "kings-pair" (i.e. ducks of the first ball in each innings), when he was dismissed of the second ball in the second innings after lasting just a ball in the first.

Ridley Jacobs' seven dismissals (including 2 stumpings) equals West Indies' best by a keeper at home. He joins Clyde Walcott (v Eng, Kingston, 1947-48), Jeff Dujon (v Eng, Bridgetown, 1985-86; v Aus, Georgetown and St John's, 1990-91) and David Williams (v Eng, Port of Spain, 1997-98). Dujon has done it on three occasions.

In the second innings, McGrath became the 17th bowler to capture 50 or more wickets against the West Indies. He also becomes the fifth Australian bowler to do so after Jeff Thomson (62 wickets in 14), Craig McDermott (59 in 14), Dennis Lillee (55 in 12) and Merv Hughes (53 in 14). McGrath at the end of the match has 53 wickets in 10 matches. Just for the record, India's Kapil Dev has the maximum wickets against the West Indians in Tests - 89 wickets in 25 matches.

Glenn McGrath's match figures of 10 for 78 was his first ten-wicket haul in Tests. His previous best match figures being 9-103 against England at Lord's in 1997.

It was the best match figures by an Australian in the Caribbean bettering the previous best of 10- 115 by Neil Hawke at Georgetown in 1964-65.

There were 15 'lbw' dismissals in the match. It fell short of the existing Test record of maximum 'lbw' dismissals of 17 at the same venue in 1992-93 in the match against Pakistan. However with nine West Indian batsmen being dismissed in this fashion in the match, it equals the record by one team. Pakistan (v WI, POS, 1992-93) and England (v WI, Lord's, 1984) were the only other teams with that many lbws in one innings.

The West Indies recorded its sixth successive defeat, while Australia won its fourth match in five tries.

The West Indies' total of 51 was the lowest in its history. The previous lowest was 53 at Faisalabad against Pakistan in 1986-87. Its lowest against Australia was 78 at Sydney in 1951-52. West Indies' lowest total at home was 102 against England at Bridgetown in 1934-35.

The 312 run loss by the West Indies was its third largest defeat (in terms of runs) in Tests. Australia had defeated the Windies by 382 runs at Sydney in 1968-69 and just a couple of months ago in the fifth Test match against South Africa at Centurion, the team from the Caribbean had lost by 351 runs. Pakistan's win by 266 runs at this venue in 1976-77 was the previous largest defeat by the West Indies at home.