• This was the 2023rd match in One-day international cricket history.
• Brian Lara scored his 17th ODI hundred in 218th match. With this he equalled Desmond Haynes’ record of scoring most ODI hundreds for West Indies. Now only Sachin Tendulkar (34), Saurav Ganguly (22),Saeed Anwar (20) and Mark Waugh (18) have scored more centuries than Lara in ODIs.
• During his innings, Lara completed his 1000 runs in ODIs against Sri Lanka. He became first West Indian and tenth batsman to reach this landmark against Sri Lanka. Incidentally Lara’s batting average of 54.65 is the highest among all the ten batsmen. At the end of this match, Lara has aggregated 1093 runs in 22 matches against Sri Lanka.
• The hundred was Lara’s third as West Indian captain. He has now equalled Viv Richards’ record of scoring most hundreds while leading West Indies.
• Chris Gayle became 12th West Indian (on 27th occasion) to become a victim of nervous nineties.
• The second wicket partnership of 137 runs between Chris Gayle and Brian Lara equals West Indies best for this wicket against Sri Lanka. Phil Simmons and Richie Richardson were involved in an identical partnership at Sharjah on 28-10-1993.
• With the catch of Lara, Sanath Jayasuriya became the leading fielder for Sri Lanka against West Indies. This was his 12th catch in 26th match against West Indies and he surpassed Aravinda de Silva’s tally of 11 catches from 28 matches.
• Jayasuriya has now aggregated 806 runs in 23 games this year – maximum by any batsman. He surpassed Australia’s Matthew Hayden’s run-aggregate of 779 from as many games. At the end of this match, fellow teammate Marvan Atapattu has secured second position among the leading run-scorers this year aggregating 787 runs from 24 matches.
• Sri Lanka’s total is the highest total made by any side against West Indies to win a match while batting second. The previous highest was 297 for five in 48.1 overs by South Africa at Lahore on 03-11-1997.
• This was also the second time a side scored 300-plus runs against West Indies batting second. The earlier instance also involved Sri Lanka as they were all-out for 329 chasing a victory target of 334 at Sharjah on 16-10-1995 losing the match by just four runs.
• Sri Lanka’s total is the highest made against West Indies in the Caribbeans beating England’s 293 for five at Bridgetown on 29-03-1998.
• The match aggregate of 625 for the loss of 10 wickets was easily the highest in the Caribbeans. This obliterated the previous highest of 583 for the loss of 14 wickets between New Zealand and West Indies at Arnos Vale on 16-06-2002.
• The match winning partnership of 101 runs between Upul Chandana and Mahela Jayawardene is Sri Lanka’s best for fifth wicket against West Indies. This expunges the 73 run-partnership between Avishka Gunawardene and Russell Arnold at Nairobi (Gym) on 04-10-2000.
• This was Sri Lanka’s eighth win over West Indies in last 10 matches
• Chandana was winning his second Man of the Match award. His only other award had come against Zimbabwe at Harare on 15-12-1999.

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Rajneesh Gupta)