It was the 1558th Test match in cricket history
Rajneesh Gupta30-Aug-2001It was the 1558th Test match in cricket history.It was Australia’s 619th and England’s 786th Test match.It was 301st Test between these two sides. The record now reads :Australia 121, England 94,drawn 86.It was the 146th Test between these two sides in England. Therecord now reads : Australia 45, England 41,drawn 60.It was the 33rd Test between these two sides at The Oval. The recordnow reads : Australia 6,England 15,drawn 12.James Ormand (right-handed batsman and medium fast bowler) wasmaking his Test debut for England. He became 607th player to representEngland in Test cricket.Andrew Caddick was making his 50th Test appearance. He became 46thEnglishman and 173rd player in all to do so.Umpires Rudi Koertzen and Peter Willey were officiating in their26th and 24th match respectively.The stand of 158 between Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer wasAustralia’s third-best for the first wicket at The Oval. The recordremains 180, by Warren Bardsley and Syd Gregory in 1909. Bill Woodfulland Bill Ponsford added 159 in 1930.Justin Langer (102 retired hurt) was scoring his eighth hundred inhis 42nd Test. It was his second against England, following 179 notout at Adelaide in 1998-99. It was also the first he had made afteropening the innings, which he had only done once before against WestIndies at Perth in 1992-93, in only his second Test, when he made 10and 1.Mark Waugh moved past David Boon (7422 runs) into fourth place onthe list of top Australian Test run-getters when he reached 32 inAustralia’s only innings. Now only Allan Border (11174 runs in 156matches), twin brother Steve (9286 in 139) and Mark Taylor (7525 in104) are ahead of Mark.Steve Waugh (157*) was making his 27th Test century in his 139thmatch. He has now moved to third place among the leading Testcenturions surpassing West Indian Garry Sobers tally of 26 andequalling with his former captain Allan Border. This after he had towait until his 42nd Test innings to score his maiden hundred ! Nowonly Indian Sunil Gavaskar (34) and Don Bradman (29) are ahead ofSteve.Mark Waugh’s 120 was his 20th Test hundred, making him the seventhAustralian to reach that landmark.Australia’s only innings included three centuries. This provided thesixth instance when three Australian batsmen scored centuries in thesame Test innings in England. The other instances being: at this samevenue in 1884 (PS McConnell 103,WL Murdoch 211 & HJH Scott 102),atHeadingley in 1926 (WM Woodfull 141,CG Macartney 151 & AJ Richardson100), at Lord’s (MA Taylor 111, MJ Slater 152 and DC Boon 164*) andHeadingley (DC Boon 107, AR Border 200* and SR Waugh 157*) in 1993 andat Edgbaston (SR Waugh 105, DR Martyn 105 and AC Gilchrist 152) infirst Test of this series. Australia’s only innings included sixscores of fifty plus-20th such instance in a Test innings. Australiahowever missed the chance to equal the existing world record of mostfifties in an innings which is held by England who scored sevenfifties in the first innings of Manchester Test in 1934.Usman Afzaal took a wicket with only his third ball in Test cricketwhen he had Adam Gilchrist caught by Ramprakash. He became the 29thEnglishman to take a wicket in his first over and the fourth to do sooff his third ball. The last England player before Afzaal to take awicket off his third ball was Graeme Hick who dismissed West IndiesPhil Simmons with his off-spinnner at Lord’s in 1991.When he dismissed Alec Stewart in England s first innings, ShaneWarne became the first spinner and only the sixth bowler in all totake 400 Test wickets. Warne joined the elite club of 400-wickettakers which has Courtney Walsh (519),Kapil Dev (434), Richard Hadlee(431),Wasim Akram (414) and Curtly Ambrose (405) as its other members.His first victim was Indian allrounder Ravi Shastri, caught by DeanJones at Sydney in 1991-92. His 100th was another all-rounder, BrianMcMillan of South Africa, lbw at Adelaide in 1993-94. Ricky Pontingshared in No. 200 by catching Sri Lanka’s Hashan Tillekeratne at Perthin 1995-96 – and the Warne 300 was brought up when South Africanwicket-keeper Dave Richardson fell to him for the second time in thematch at Sydney in 1997-98. Warne has reached 400 in 92 Tests, fasterthan anyone except the remarkable Hadlee, who took just 80 matches toreach this landmark.The dismissal of Darren Gough in first innings off Shane Warne was100th for Adam Gilchrist as a wicket-keeper. He became fifthAustralian after Ian Healy (395),Rod Marsh (355), Wally Grout (187)and Bert Oldfield (130) and the 26th keeper in all to do so. Byreaching this landmark in his 22nd Test Gilchrist became the quickestin Test history breaking the world record set by South Africa’s MarkBoucher, also against England, at Port Elizabeth in 1999-2000.With this Gilchrist also completed the all-round double of 1000 runsand 100 dismissals. Obviously he is the fastest to complete the doubleobliterating Rod Marsh s record of 25 Tests.Mike Atherton (in second innings) fell off the bowling of GlennMcGrath for the sixth time in this series and 19th time in his careera new record of a batsman getting dismissed off a particular bowler onmost occasions. The Atherton-McGrath combination broke the record ofArthur Morris and Alec Bedser. England fast-medium bowler Bedserdismissed Australian opener Morris 18 times from 1946-47 to 1953.Shane Warne (7-165) was taking seven wickets in a Test innings inEngland for the first time. This was also the second time in theseries that he has improved his best figures in England. His 6 for 33at Trent Bridge bettered the 6 for 48 he took at Old Trafford in 1997.Warne’s best figures against England, home or away, remains 8 for 71at Brisbane in 1994-95. When Glenn McGrath dismissed Usman Afzaal inthe second innings, he moved past Dennis Lillee (355 wickets in 70Tests) into second place on the list of Australian Test wicket-takers.Only Shane Warne (407) now is ahead of him. The blonde bombshell hasmoved to the fourth place among the leading wicket takers surpassingWest Indian Curtly Ambrose (405).Shane Warne (11-229) took ten wickets in a Test for the fifth timebut it was the first time he had done it outside Australia. It wasalso the second time he had taken ten or more wickets against England.Steve Waugh extended his world-record of finishing on the winningside for the 66th time in Tests, while his twin brother Mark movedahead of Viv Richards (63) with his 64th Test victory. At the otherend of the scale, Alec Stewart also extended his world-record with the48th Test defeat of his career, ahead of Allan Border (46) and MikeAtherton (44).Glenn McGrath finished the series with 32 wickets. It was the thirdtime he has taken 30 or more in a series (36 against England in 1997,and 30 against West Indies in 1998-99). The only other bowlers tocapture 30 or more wickets in a series on three separate occasions areSyd Barnes and Alec Bedser of England, and Clarrie Grimmett and CraigMcDermott of Australia.Australia has now featured in 23 consecutive Tests with positiveresults, winning 20 and losing only three a new world-record. Itbettered England’s run of 22 result producing Tests from December 1884to March 1892.This was the first English summer to feature seven Tests withpositive results (England won two and lost five). The previous recordwas six, in the nine-Test Triangular tournament summer of 1912, whenEngland won four and Australia two. The third team, South Africa, lostfive of those and Australia one.