This was India’s first ODI win against Australia in 12 tries. Their last victory was on January 18, 2004, in a VB Series match. Since then, they have lost eight games while three have been washed out.
The defeat also breaks Australia’s 14-match unbeaten run, which dates back to February 20 this year, when New Zealand beat them in the third game of the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. Since then, Australia had won all 13 games in which there had been a decisive result.
Matthew Hayden continued his good form, getting his third successive half-century of the series, and along the way reaching the 1500-run milestone for the year as well. It was only the seventh instance of a batsman getting to that mark in a year: Sachin Tendulkar has done it twice (1611 in 1996 and 1894 in 1998), as has Sourav Ganguly (1767 in 1999 and 1579 in 2000), while Saeed Anwar (1742 in 1996) and Rahul Dravid (1761 in 1999) have achieved it once each. Hayden’s feat thus makes him the first player from outside the subcontinent to score 1500 ODI runs in a single year. The earlier highest for Australia was Mark Waugh’s 1468 runs in 1999.
Australia were unusually sloppy with the ball, conceding 31 runs from wides (16 wide deliveries). It’s the second-most number of runs from wides that Australia have conceded in an ODI innings – the only time they conceded more was also in India, during the TVS Cup in 2003-04 against New Zealand in Pune, when they leaked 32. Overall, they conceded 39 extras, which is also just one run lesser than their record: they allowed Sri Lanka 40 extra runs in a VB Series match in Sydney in 2002-03.
Hayden’s dismissal for 92 means he joins Ricky Ponting and Dean Jones as the only other Australian batsmen who have fallen in the 90s four times in ODIs (Jones also has two unbeaten 90s). Gilchrist, though, holds the record for most number of such dismissals for an Australian: he has fallen six times in the 90s.
When Tendulkar reached 53, he became the first batsman to make 1000 runs in a calendar year seven times. Tendulkar has achieved it in 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, and 2007. The only other batsman to manage it even six times is his current opening partner, Ganguly. Tendulkar is also the seventh batsman to get to 1000 ODI runs in 2007 – Mahela Jayawardene, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Matthew Hayden, Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting are the others.
Ganguly and Tendulkar added 91, which is the 42nd time they have added fifty or more for the first wicket in ODIs. This equals the record, which stands in the name of the other opening pair in this match, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist. It was also the 53rd time the pair put together a fifty-plus stand for any wicket in ODIs, which is also comfortably the highest. No other pair has more than Hayden and Gilchrist’s 42. (Jayasuriya-Atapattu and Greenidge-Haynes have 40 each.)
Tendulkar’s 79 is his 84th half-century in ODIs, which is a record, going past Inzamam-ul-Haq’s 83. The only other batsman with 80-plus fifties is Dravid, who has 80.
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