• This Test was 1680th in cricket history.
• VVS Laxman and Matthew Hayden were both playing their 50th Test. They became 21st from India and 38th from Australia respectively to complete half-century of Test match appearances. A total of 192 players have now played in 50 or more Tests.
• Sachin Tendulkar became only the fourth batsman in Test cricket to complete 9000 runs when his score reached 36 in India’s first innings on the opening day. Tendulkar also became the quickest to reach this landmark in terms of innings by taking only 179 innings as compared to Sunil Gavaskar’s, the previous record holder, 192. Tendulkar, however, took one Test more than Gavaskar to accomplish this feat. At 30 years 253 days Tendulkar also became the youngest to complete 9000 runs.However only two days after Tendulkar completed his 9000 runs, West Indian Brian Lara, playing against South Africa, became the fastest to reach 9000 runs in a Test career by taking only 177 innings and 101 Tests).
• Sachin Tendulkar registered (241*) his highest score in first class and Test cricket. His 241* runs came in 613 minutes and off 436 balls – his longest innings both in terms of minutes and balls. His previous longest innings had come against New Zealand at Ahmedabad in 1999-00 when he scored 217 in 494 minutes. However his previous longest innings in terms of balls was of 360 balls against England at Nottingham in 1996 during his knock of 177. Tendulkar’s previous longest innings in a first class match was of 565 minutes in the Ranji Trophy Semifinal for Mumbai against Tamil Nadu at Mumbai in 1999-00. Tendulkar made 233* off 334 balls in that innings.
• Tendulkar’s 241* is now the second highest individual innings by an Indian batsman after VVS Laxman’s 281 and the highest ever for India on foreign soil. The previous record was on the name of teammate Rahul Dravid who made match-winning 233 in the second Test of this series at Adelaide.
• A total of 25 Test double hundreds have now been scored by 14 Indians. This was Tendulkar’s third double ton in Test cricket. Now only two batsmen – Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid- have scored more double tons (4 each) than Tendulkar for India.Tendulkar has now made 13 150+ scores which takes him ahead of Sunil Gavaskar who had 12 such scores to his name. Tendulkar also equalled the tally of West Indian Brian Lara. Now only two batsmen – Australia’s Don Bradman (18) and Steve Waugh (14) are ahead of Tendulkar.
• Tendulkar has now scored 32 Test hundreds equalling the tally of Australia’s Steve Waugh. Now only one batsman- India’s Sunil Gavaskar (34) is ahead of him.
• Tendulkar and VVS Laxman added 353 runs for the fourth wicket in first innings. Their stand is now the highest ever fourth-wicket partnership against Australia by any country. The pair obliterated the 288-run partnership between Englishmen Nasser Hussain and Graham Thorpe at Birmingham in 1997.
• This was also India's best partnership for the fourth wicket in all Tests, bettering the 281 run-partnership between Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly against New Zealand at Ahmedabad in 1999-00.
• The above partnership was also the highest for any wicket for India on foreign soil, beating the 303-run stand between Rahul Dravid and Laxman in the first innings of the Adelaide Test of this series.Overall, it was the third best partnership for any wicket for India and third best for any wicket by any country against Australia.
• India’s total of 705 for seven declared in first innings was their highest ever total in Test cricket – home or abroad. India’s previous highest was 676 for seven against Sri Lanka at Kanpur in 1986-87. The total was also the ninth highest total posted by any side in Test cricket and second highest made against Australia. Incidentally India’s previous highest total in an ‘away’ Test was 628 for eight declared against England at Leeds in 2002.
• The wicket of Damien Martyn (in first innings) was the 21st caught and bowled dismissal for Anil Kumble in his career. He has now taken most wickets in this fashion than any other bowler in Test history. Kumble was previously at level with England’s Derek Underwood with 20 caught and bowled dismissals.
• Kumble achieved the fourth best figures by an Indian bowler in an ‘away’ Test when he returned the figures of 8 for 141 in Australia’s first innings. This was the second occasion when Kumble claimed eight or more wickets in an innings. The other such occasion had come against Pakistan at Delhi in 1999-00, when he took all ten wickets of Pakistani innings. Kumble thus became fourth Indian after Kapil Dev, Vinoo Mankad and Narendra Hirwani to capture eight wickets in an innings on more than one occasion. Kapil is the only Indian to have taken eight wicket innings haul on three occasions.
• Kumble’s first innings figures were the second best by an Indian on Australian soil after Kapil Dev’s 8 for 106 at Adelaide in 1985-86 and also the tenth best by any bowler against the Australians in their home territory.
• The eighth wicket partnership of 117 runs between Simon Katich and Jason Gillespie in first innings was Australia’s highest for this wicket against India. The pair obliterated the 83-run stand between Ricky Ponting and Gillespie in the Adelaide Test of this series
• Sourav Ganguly provided the 30th instance of a Test captain not enforcing the follow-on on the opponents despite being entitled to do so. Out of the 30 such instances, the teams not enforcing the follow-on have won on 22 occasions, drawn on seven occasions and lost only once.The only team to have lost a Test after NOT enforcing the follow-on is South Africa. Captain Dudley Nourse’s decision backfired in the Test against Australia at Durban in 1949-50.
• Ganguly became only the second Indian captain not to impose follow-on on the opponent. Sachin Tendulkar was the first to do so when he decided to give his bowlers rest rather than the opportunity to have another go at the New Zealanders in the Ahmedabad Test in 1999-00. That Test was drawn too !
• Murali Kartik, by conceding 122 runs in his 19 overs (RpO 6.42) in first innings, achieved the third worst economic rate by an Indian bowler bowling atleast 10 overs in an innings. Only Atul Wassan (16.4-1-108-4, RpO 6.48 v New Zealand at Auckland in 1989-90) and Rahul Sanghvi (10.2-2-67-2,RpO 6.48 v Australia at Mumbai WS in 2000-01) have recorded worse figures.
• India declared their second innings at 211 for two in only 43.2 overs scoring at a rate of 4.87 runs per over. This run-rate was India’s second highest in Test cricket in an innings of 200 or more. India’s highest run-rate in an innings has also been achieved under Ganguly’s captaincy in the Delhi Test against Zimbabwe in 2000-01. India made 190 for three in 37.3 overs at a run-rate of 5.07.
• India’s run-rate in their second innings was also the highest achieved by any side against Australia in an innings of 200 or more. The previous best was recorded by West Indian side at Adelaide in 1975-76 when they scored 274 runs in 56.2 overs at a run-rate of 4.86
• India’s match aggregate of 916 for the loss of nine wickets was their highest in a Test match. Their previous highest match aggregate was 829 for the loss of 18 wickets against West Indies at Calcutta in 2002-03. India’s aggregate was also the highest by any side against Australia beating England’s 65 years old record of 903 for the loss of 7 wickets at The Oval in 1934.The aggregate was also the eleventh highest by a side in Test history.
• Tendulkar became only the fourth Indian batsman to score 300-plus runs in a match joining the ranks of Sunil Gavaskar and two teammates VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid. Tendulkar also became only the 31st batsman to have performed this feat on 36th occasion.
• Tendulkar became first Indian and only the fifth batsman in Test history to score 300 runs in a Test match without being dismissed. The others are England’s Wally Hammond (336* V New Zealand at Auckland in 1932-33), West Indian Gary Sobers (365* v Pakistan at Kingston in 1957-58), England’s John Edrich (310* v New Zealand at Leeds in 1965) and New Zealander Stephen Fleming (274* & 69* v Sri Lanka at Colombo PSS in 2002-03).
• Tendulkar’s innings of 241* and 60* also took his career aggregate to exact 5000 runs in ‘overseas’ matches, making him the second Indian (after Sunil Gavaskar) and fifth batsman overall to have scored 5000 runs in matches away from home. Australia’s Allan Border heads the table of leading run-scorers in ‘away’ matches with 5431 runs from 70 games.
• Tendulkar has taken his career aggregate to 1789 runs in 19 matches against Australia – highest by any batsman in India-Australia Tests. The previous record was on the name of Allan Border who had scored 1567 runs in 20 matches. Incidentally the previous record of most runs by an Indian against Australia was held by Sunil Gavaskar who had an aggregate of 1550 runs from 20 matches.
• Justin Langer completed his 5000 runs when his score reached 10 during his innings of 47 on the fifth day. Langer was playing his 71st Test and 118th innings. He became 14th Australian and 56th batsman overall to do so.
• Ricky Ponting ended the series with 706 runs from 8 innings (ave. 100.85). His aggregate is now the sixth highest by any batsman in a series against India. Ponting, in fact, narrowly missed the opportunity of obliterating Don Bradman’s long-standing Australian record against India. Bradman had aggregated 715 runs in a five match series (he batted in only six innings though) with four hundreds keeping the average of 178.75. Ponting also provided the 29th instance of a batsman scoring 700 or more runs in a Test series.
• What Ponting did to India, Dravid did to Australia. Dravid ended the series with 619 runs, which is the highest series aggregate for India against Australia. The previous highest was 518 by Gundappa Viswanath in six match series in 1979-80.
• This was the second occasion when Dravid aggregated 600 or more runs in a series. He had also scored 602 runs against England in England in 2002.
• Dravid has now played in 40 consecutive matches and 70 consecutive innings without recording a duck (he had last recorded a duck on this same ground in 1999-00 !). Dravid is now inching towards David Gower’s world record of not recording a duck in 67 consecutive matches and 119 innings
• Steve Waugh, playing in his last Test, scored 50th fifty (excluding hundreds) of his career on the fifth day. He became only the second batsman in Test history after countryman Allan Border to do so. Border had 63 fifties to his credit.
• Kumble (12-279) became only the second Indian to take a dozen wickets in a match in an ‘away’ Test after Bhagwat Chandrasekhar who had returned the figures of 12 for 104 against Australia at Melbourne in 1977-78. Only four other Indian bowlers have succeeded in taking ten wickets in a match on foreign soil. They are Erapally Prasanna (11 for 140 v New Zealand at Auckland in 1975-76), Bishan Singh Bedi (10 for 194 v Australia at Perth in 1977-78), Chetan Sharma (10-188 v England at Birmingham in 1986) and Venkatesh Prasad (10 for 153 v South Africa at Durban in 1996-97).
• However Kumble’s figures are the second worst in Test history by a bowler capturing a ten wicket match haul. Australia’s Aurthur Mailey had returned the figures of 10 for 302 against England at Adelaide in 1920-21.
• Kumble also achieved the dubious distinction of conceding maximum runs in a match by an Indian bowler. Previously, it was Rajesh Chauhan who held that mark. He conceded 276 runs in Sri Lanka's mammoth total of 952 for six at Colombo PSS in 1997-98. Kumble, though, may take solace from the fact that he went for 23.25 runs for each wicket in a match where an average of 69.88 runs were scored for a wicket. Also, Australia's strike bowler Brett Lee went for 276 runs in his 51.5 overs picking only four wickets in the process.
• Kumble has now taken ten wickets in a match on five occasions. No other Indian bowler has taken ten wickets in a match on more than two occasions. Kumble also joined two Englishmen George Lohmann and Alec Bedser and three Pakistanis Abdul Qadir, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis who have also taken five ten-wicket match hauls. Among all the bowlers now only eight - Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (12), New Zealand’s Richard Hadlee (9), England’s S Barnes, Australia’s Clarrie Grimmett and Dennis Lillee (7 apiece) and England’s Derek Underwood (5), Pakistan’s Imran Khan and Australia’s Shane Warne (6 apiece) - have taken ten wickets match hauls on more occasions than Kumble.
• Kumble has now taken his career tally to 382 wickets from 81 Tests which puts him at tenth place among the leading wicket-takers in Test cricket ahead of Pakistan’s Waqar Younis (373 in 87 matches) and West Indies’ Malcolm Marshall (381 in 81 matches) and just behind England’s Ian Botham (383 in 102 matches).
• Kumble conceded 710 runs in the three Tests while picking up 24 wickets. This is the maximum runs conceded by a bowler appearing in the three matches of a series (Kumble did not play in the first Test at Brisbane). Interestingly the previous record was also held by an Indian. Narendra Hirwani had conceded 586 runs (for his nine wickets) in the series against England in England in 1990.
• Australia’s fourth innings total of 357 for six was the seventh highest by a side in a drawn match. The highest fourth innings total coming in a drawn match is England’s 654 for six against South Africa at Durban in 1938-39. England were chasing a victory target of 696.
• A total of 1747 runs were scored in the match over the five days for the loss of 25 wickets. This is the fifth highest match aggregate in a Test cricket history spanning about 127 years and 1680 Tests. Infact out of the four Tests where more runs were scored than the Sydney Test, three were of more than five days duration. Hence there has been only one better performance in a five-day duration match in Test history than the Sydney Test. The match aggregate of Adelaide Test between Australia and West Indies in 1968-69 series was 1764 for the loss of 39 wickets.
• The match also saw as many as seven bowlers conceding more than 100 runs with MacGill conceding 100 runs in both innings. The eight instances of 100 runs being conceded by bowlers equalled the existing world record. This has been recorded on six occasions now in Test cricket. Interestingly India have been involved in last three occasions.
• Tendulkar was winning Man of the match award for the tenth time in his career. He became first Indian and 15th player to do so. Pakistan’s Wasim Akram has won most (17) MoM awards in Test cricket.

(Article: Copyright © 2004 Rajneesh Gupta)