• This was the 2026th one-day international match in cricket history.
• Imran Nazir was dismissed off the first ball of the match. This provided the third instance of a side losing a wicket off the first ball of the match against England. By an odd coincidence, on all the three occasions the batsmen were out lbw. Greig Thomas had Mudassar Nazar lbw at Edgbaston on 25-05-1987 and 15 years later Darren Gough trapped Saurav Ganguly at Chester-le-Street on 04-07-2002.
• Four batsmen failed to open their account in Pakistan’s innings. Interestingly all four were first ball ducks. This provided the fourth instance of a side recording four ducks in an innings against England. Pakistan feature in two of them. As many as six Pakistani batsmen failed to open their account at Edgbaston on 25-05-1987. The other two instances: by Australia at Sydney on 14-01-1980 and by South Africa at East London on 14-01-1996.
• The seventh wicket partnership of 72 runs between Yousuf Youhana and Azhar Mahmood is Pakistan’s best for this wicket against England. This obliterates the previous highest of 64 between Wasim Raja and Hasan Jamil at Sialkot on 30-12-1977.
• James Anderson completed his hat-trick when he had Abdur Razzaq, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami off the last three balls of his ninth over. He became first Englishman to claim an ODI hat-trick in 373 matches.
• This was the 18th hat-trick in One-day internationals and only the second against Pakistan. Australia’s Anthony Stuart (at Melbourne on 16-01-1997) is the only other bowler to claim a hat-trick against Pakistan.
• Marcus Trescothick (86) scored 76 runs in boundaries, 16 fours and 2 sixes, a boundary percentage of 88.37. He now holds the record of best boundary percentage in an innings for England. The previous record was on the name of Chris Smith who had a boundary percentage of 85.71 against New Zealand at Wellington 22-02-1984 as he hit 15 fours in his innings of 70.
• Trescothick’s boundary percentage is the sixth best in all ODIs for a batsman scoring at least 50 runs in an innings. The details:

  %       Runs/Score  Batsman         For  v     Venue        Date
  96.00   48/50       ML Hayden       Aus  NZ    Auckland     19-02-2000
  94.55   52/55*      Shahid Afridi   Pak  Hol   Colombo SSC  21-09-2002
  92.30   48/52       Shahid Afridi   Pak  SL    Gwalior      12-05-1997
  91.42   64/70       Shahid Afridi   Pak  NZ    Sharjah      12-04-2001
  90.62   58/64       WW Hinds        WI   Can   Centurion    23-02-2003
  88.37   76/86       ME Trescothick  Eng  Pak   The Oval     20-06-2003
  88.23   90/102      Shahid Afridi   Pak  SL    Nairobi Gym  04-10-1996
  88.23   60/68       CM Spearman     NZ   Ind   Rajkot       05-11-1999
  

• Trescothick’s scoring rate (156.36) is the fifth best by an Englishman making at least 50 runs in an innings.The details:

  Batsman         R/100B  Runs  Balls  v     Venue         Date
  A Flintoff      178.57  50*   28     SL    Trent Bridge  27-06-2002
  IT Botham       174.36  68    39     Aus   Perth         01-01-1987
  CM Old          170.00  51*   30     Ind   Lord's        07-06-1975
  AJ Stewart      163.89  59    36     SL    Ballarat      09-03-1992
  ME Trescothick  156.36  86    55     Pak   The Oval      20-06-2003
  GA Hick         150.00  63    42     Pak   Trent Bridge  20-08-1992
  

• England reached their 100 in 10.3 overs. This is their fastest team hundred and the ninth fastest team hundred in ODIs.
• England won the match with 28 overs (168 balls) to spare. This is England’s second largest win in a 50-over game in terms of balls to be spared. England had beaten Zimbabwe with 177 balls to spare at Old Trafford on 13-07-2000. Though England had also beaten Canada at Old Trafford on 14-06-1979 and Sri Lanka at Headingley on 20-06-1983 with more than 200 balls to spare, but those were 60 overs games.
• Azhar Mahmood (3-0-35-0) achieved the dubious distinction of conceding most runs in a three-over spell for Pakistan against England. The previous record was on the name of Aamir Sohail who went for 34 runs in his three overs at Trent Bridge on 20-08-1992
• Shoaib Akhtar by conceding 69 runs in his nine overs recorded the second most expensive figures for Pakistan against England. The record, however, is still held by Iqbal Qasim who conceded 76 runs in his eight overs at Old Trafford on 19-07-1982.
• Trescothick was winning his sixth Man of the match award.

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Rajneesh Gupta)