• Andy Bichel’s wicket of Nick Knight was his 50th of his career in 41 matches. He became the 140th bowler overall and the 25th Australian to reach this landmark.
• Andrew Flintoff, on 26, completed his 1000 runs in ODIs. Flintoff became 175th batsman overall and 18th Englishman to do so. He was playing his 52nd match and 44th innings. Only Nasser Hussain (46) and Ian Botham (52) have played more innings than him to aggregate 1000 runs in a career for England.
• The partnership of 90 runs between Alec Stewart and Andy Flintoff was England’s best against Australia for the sixth wicket in ODIs bettering the previous best of unbeaten 88 between Allan Lamb and Derek Pringle at Nottingham in 1989. The pair also eclipses England’s previous best against Australia in the World Cup for this wicket, which was the 30 run stand between Lamb and John Emburey at Kolkata in 1987.
• The above partnership was also a record at this ground for the sixth wicket. South Africans Jacques Kallis and Lance Klusener had put on 58 runs against Zimbabwe in 2000.
• Andy Bichel’s 7-20 was the second best bowling performance by an Australian, after the 7-15 by teammate Glenn McGrath against Namibia at Potchefstroom a few days ago on February 27. It was also the all-time third best bowling performance in ODIs after Sri Lankan Chamida Vaas’ 8-19 against Zimbabwe at Colombo RPS in 2001 and McGrath’s 7-15.
• Bichel figures are now the best by any bowler against England. He betters the previous best of 7-36 by Pakistani Waqar Younis at Leeds in 2001. He also betters the previous best bowling performance against England in the World Cup. Former Australian left-arm pace bowler Gary Gilmour had figures of 6-14 (in 12 overs) at Leeds in 1975. Bichel’s previous personal best figures were the 5-19 against South Africa at Sydney in 2002.
• The unbeaten 73 run partnership between Michael Bevan and Andy Bichel was the best for Australia against England for the ninth wicket in ODIs bettering the unbeaten 33 between Kim Hughes and Geoff Dymock at the Oval in 1980.
• The above partnership was Australia’s all-time best in the World Cup for the ninth wicket. The pair obliterates the previous best of unbeaten 23 between Geoff Marsh and Andrew Zesers against New Zealand at Chandigarh in 1987.
• Bevan’s unbeaten 74 was the highest score by an Australian batsman at number six against England. The previous highest was the 69 not out also by Bevan at Sydney in 1999.
• Bichel’s unbeaten 34 was his highest of his career. He had made 28 against Sri Lanka at Sydney earlier this year.
• Bichel’s 7-20 and unbeaten 34 makes him the first player in ODI history to do the rare all-rounders double of 30-plus runs and seven wickets in the same match.
• Only two other Australians have made scores of 30-plus and taken five-plus wickets in the same match - Greg Chappell (33 not out, 5-15 v India at Sydney in 1981) and Mark Waugh (57, 5-24 v West Indies at Melbourne in 1992).
• Bichel, incidentally becomes the only second player in the World Cup to do the all-rounder’s double of 30-plus runs and five-plus wickets. India’s Kapil Dev (40, 5-43 v Australia at Nottingham in 1983) was the only other player to achieve this.
• The defeat by 2 wickets was England’s narrowest in a World Cup game. New Zealand had beaten them by an identical margin at Birmingham in 1983 World Cup.
• This win was Australia’s 12th in a row since 11-1-2003. This is now a new record for most wins in a row by any team in ODI history. The previous record holder West Indies had 11 consecutive victories from 4-6-1984 to 2-2-1985. Incidentally Australia, under Steve Waugh, also had an unbeaten run of 14 matches from 12-1-2000 to 1-3-2000. However this sequence was broken on 17-2-2000, when a match against the Kiwis at Wellington had to be declared as a no-result because of rain. Prior to this match, the Australians had won nine in a row and then had four consecutive wins after the Wellington game.
• This was Australia’s 14th consecutive win over England since 26-1-1999 (at Adelaide). The last time England won a match against the Aussies was at Sydney (by 7 runs) on 17-1-1999.

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Rajneesh Gupta)