• This match was 1652nd in Test cricket history
• Bundaberg Rum Stadium in Cairns became the 90th ground (ninth in Australia) to host a Test match.
• Anwar Hossain Monir was making his debut. He became 32nd player to represent Bangladesh in Test cricket.
• The eighth wicket partnership of 51 runs between Khaled Mashud and Tapas Baisya is Bangladesh’s highest for this wicket against all countries. This obliterates the previous record stand of 46 between Akram Khan and Enamul Hoque against Zimbabwe at Harare in 2000-01
• Darren Lehmann scored 105 runs between tea and close of play on the second day. He provided the 26th instance of an Australian batsman scoring a century in a session’s play.
• Steve Waugh became first batsman to score 150+ against all Test playing countries
• Waugh has now scored hundreds on 20 different grounds. Only one other batsman - India’s Sachin Tendulkar - is ahead of Waugh in scoring hundreds on more grounds. Tendulkar has scored hundreds on 23 different grounds.
• Waugh also became first batsman to score hundreds on seven grounds in Australia.
• The 250 run-partnership between Darren Lehmann and Waugh was the highest against Bangladesh in Test cricket for fourth wicket. The pair obliterated the previous record stand of 176 between Ramnaresh Sarwan and Marlon Samuels for West Indies at Dhaka in 2002-03. Overall it was the third highest partnership for any wicket against Bangladesh after the 429 run (unbeaten) partnership between South Africa’s Jack Rudolph and Boeta Dippenaar at Chittagong in 2002-03 and the 272 run partnership between Graeme Smith and Gary Kirsten for second wicket at East London in 2002-03.
• This was also the 59th century partnership in which Steve Waugh was involved. He thus moved ahead of India’s Sunil Gavaskar who got involved in 58 century partnerships. Now only Allan Border with involvement in 63 century partnerships is ahead of Waugh.
• Hannan Sarkar top scored in both innings for Bangladesh. He became third Bangladeshi batsman to achieve this distinction after Mohammad Ashraful who made 26 (out of 90) & 114 (out of 328) against Sri Lanka at Colombo SSC in 2001-02 and Habibul Bashar who made 60 (out of 173) & 75 (out of 237) against South Africa at Chittagong in 2002-03.
• Stuart MacGill (10-133) took ten wickets in a match for the second time in his career. He had returned the figures of 12 for 107 against England at Sydney in 1998-99.
• MacGill became the fourth bowler (on fifth occasion) to bag ten wickets in a match against Bangladesh. Interestingly all four are spinners. The complete list : Danesh Kaneria (12 for 94) for Pakistan at Multan in 2001-02, Muttiah Muralitharan (10 for 111) for Sri Lanka at Colombo SSC in 2001-02 and 10 for 98 at Colombo PSS in 2002-03, Paul Adams (10 for 106) for South Africa at Chittagong in 2002-03….and Stuart MacGill (10 for 133) for Australia at Cairns in 2003-04.
• MacGill has now taken five wicket innings hauls in three consecutive innings which makes him the tenth Australian to do so. The record is on the name of Charlie Turner. He took five wicket innings in six consecutive innings in the year 1888. Clarrie Grimmett is the only one to take three consecutive five-wicket innings hauls on three separate occasions.
• MacGill’s 17 wickets in the series just failed to equal the existing Australian record of most wickets in a two match series. John Ferris had taken 18 wickets against England way back in 1886-87. Charlie Turner also took 17 wickets in the same series.
• Bangladesh lost 20th match out of the 21 they have played.

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Rajneesh Gupta)