- It was the 1735th ODI in cricket history.
- It was New Zealand’s 380th and Sri Lanka’s 356th match- 48th betweenthese two sides. The record now reads : Sri Lanka 19, New Zealand26,tied one and abandoned 2.
- It was the 100th match on Sri Lankan soil. Sri Lanka became countryafter Australia (386), India (219) ,England (202), United ArabEmirates (174), New Zealand (161), Pakistan (132) and South Africa(105) to host 100 or more ODI matches.
- Umpires LV Jayasundra and DN Pathirana were officiating in their fifthand 10th match respectively.
- Sanath Jayasuriya, leading Sri Lanka for the 54th time in his career,completed his 2000 runs as captain. He became second Sri Lankan afterArjuna Ranatunga and 13th captain in ODIs to achieve this landmark.The accompanying table has details :
Captain | For | M | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | 100s | 50s | 0s |
A Ranatunga | SL | 193 | 183 | 34 | 5606 | 131* | 37.62 | 4 | 37 | 14 |
M Azharuddin | Ind | 174 | 162 | 29 | 5239 | 153* | 39.39 | 4 | 37 | 6 |
AR Border | Aus | 178 | 165 | 27 | 4439 | 127* | 32.17 | 2 | 27 | 6 |
WJ Cronje | SA | 138 | 128 | 20 | 4070 | 94 | 37.69 | – | 31 | 6 |
Imran Khan | Pak | 139 | 122 | 29 | 3247 | 102* | 34.91 | 1 | 18 | 2 |
IVA Richards | WI | 106 | 92 | 11 | 3203 | 181 | 39.54 | 2 | 23 | 3 |
SR Tendulkar | Ind | 73 | 70 | 5 | 2454 | 186* | 37.75 | 6 | 12 | 4 |
SR Waugh | Aus | 98 | 82 | 14 | 2398 | 120* | 35.26 | 2 | 15 | 8 |
SP Fleming | NZ | 93 | 88 | 9 | 2356 | 116* | 29.82 | 2 | 14 | 5 |
MA Taylor | Aus | 67 | 65 | 1 | 2098 | 105 | 32.78 | 1 | 15 | 2 |
ADR Campbell | Zim | 76 | 74 | 8 | 2075 | 102 | 31.44 | 2 | 13 | 3 |
RB Richardson | WI | 87 | 83 | 13 | 2042 | 122 | 29.17 | 2 | 10 | – |
ST Jayasuriya | SL | 54 | 54 | 1 | 2029 | 189 | 38.28 | 5 | 14 | 4 |
- Craig McMillan , on 5,completed his 2000 runs in ODIs. He was playinghis 89th match and 83rd innings. He became 12th New Zealander and 94thbatsman in all to do so.
- The wicket of Vincent was 50th for Muttiah Muralitharan on Sri Lankansoil. He became second Sri Lankan after Sanath Jayasuriya (74 wicketsin 60 matches) to do so.
- Adam Parare was scoring a fifty after 61 matches. His last fifty hadalso come against Sri Lanka (54 at Dhaka on October 26,1998). It wasthe fourth fifty by a New Zealander wicketkeeper against Sri Lanka.All four have been scored by Parore !
- During his innings, Parore also completed his 2000 runs in `away’matches for New Zealand. He became fourth New Zealander to do so afterMartin Crowe (2820 runs in 86 matches), John Wright (2752 runs in 106matches) and Stephen Fleming (2344 runs in 90 matches).
- The two wickets in this match has taken Muralitharan’s tally to 32 inthe year 2001 which makes him the bowler with most wickets in onedayers along with Pakistan’s Waqar Younis (32 in 16) and Australia’sShane Warne (32 in 18). This was Murali’s 18th match in year 2001.
- The defeat was New Zealand’s 50th under Stephen Fleming’s captaincy.Fleming became first New Zealander and fifth captain in ODIs toachieve this dubious distinction. Others to do so are Sri LankanArjuna Ranatunga (95 losses in 193 matches), Indian MohammadAzharuddin (76 losses in 174 matches),Australian Allan Border (67losses in 178 matches) and Pakistani Imran Khan (59 losses in 139matches). However all other four captains had won more matches thanthe matches they lost.
- Sanath Jayasuriya was winning his 26th Man of the Match award. Withthis he equalled West Indian Desmond Haynes’ tally of awards. Now onlyIndia’s Sachin Tendukar (41),West Indian Viv Richards (31), PakistaniSaeed Anwar (27) and former teammate Aravinda de Silva (27) are aheadof Jayasuriya in this form of cricket.
