It was the 1481st Test match in cricket history. It was Australia's 603rd and India's 331st Test. It was the 57th Test between the two sides. The record
now reads : Australia 28, India 11, drawn 17 and tied 1. It was the 86th Test at this ground out of which Australia has won 44 and lost 26. India has now played 7
Tests at this venue-winning one and losing 3. Umpires Darrel Hair and Ian Robinson were officiating
in their 31st and 22nd Test respectively. Mark Waugh was playing his 100th Test. He became the sixth
Australian after Allan Border (156), Steve Waugh (125),
Ian Healy (119), David Boon (107) and Mark Taylor (104)
and the 21st player in the world to do so. Incidentally it
was Mark Waugh's 50th Test on home soil. Having made
his debut against England at Adelaide on January 25,
1991 Mark Waugh took eight years and 342 days for his
100th Test - which is the least time taken by any
player to achieve this target. The previous record was
held by former team-mate and keeper Ian Healy with nine
years and 137 days. India's first innings total of 150 was its lowest at
this venue beating the previous lowest of 188 in 1947-
48. It was the 13th lowest total by India against Australia in all Test matches. Ajit Agarkar's first innings duck was his fourth consecutive 'golden' duck. He thus became the first ever batsman
in Test history to do so. The previous 'best' performance
was on the name of South Africa's Bob Crisp who recorded four ducks in five balls against Australia in 1935-
36. Agarkar also equalled the Indian record of most
consecutive ducks hitherto held by Pankaj Roy (v England in 1952) and Ramakant Desai (v England and Australia in 1959 and 1959-60). Glenn McGrath (5-48) took his first five wicket haul
against India. He has now taken five wicket innings
hauls against all Test playing countries except Zimbabwe. Justin Langer made his highest Test score beating the
previous best of 179* against England at Adelaide in
1998-99. It was the fiftieth double century scored by an
Australian and Langer became the 30th Australian to do so. Langer's innings is also the highest by an Australian
batsman against India - home or away, putting into shade
Kim Hughes' 213 at Adelaide in 1980-81. Incidentally the
previous highest innings by an Australian batsman at
this venue against India was 204 by Greg Chappell also in
1980-81. Australia's total (552-5 decl.) was its fourth highest
against India after 674 at Adelaide in 1947-48, 575 for
8 decl. at Melbourne at Melbourne also in 1947-48 and
574 for seven decl. at Chennai in 1986-87. However it
was the highest total for Australia batting second
beating the previous highest of 529 at Melbourne in
1967-68. Anil Kumble conceded 126 runs in Australia's only
innings without taking a wicket. It was the second occasion
when Kumble did not get a wicket in an innings despite
conceding more than 100 runs. Kumble had conceded 136
runs in 51 overs against South Africa at Cape Town in
1996-97 without a wicket to his name. Tendulkar's wicket of Langer was his 14th in 74 Tests and
his fifth against Australia. V.V.S.Laxman scored his first hundred in his 16th Test.
His previous highest was 95 also against Australia at
Calcutta in 1997-98. In making 167 out of 261 Laxman hit 63.98 % of the total
-a percentage bettered only by Charles Bannerman (67.34%)
in very first Test of all and Michael Slater (66.84 %)
against England at Sydney in 1998-99. The previous Indian
record was held by Mohinder Amarnath whose 60 in India's
total of 97 against WestIndies at Kingston in 1975-76
made a contribution of 61.85 % Laxman's innings was 6.68 times more than the next
highest scorer, Saurav Ganguly with 25. This was the third
highest ratio of the highest scorer to the second
highest scorer in a completed innings for India. Kapil
Dev's 129 against South Africa at Port Elizabeth in 1992-
93 had the next highest score of 17 thus giving a ratio
of 7.59. Sachin Tendulkar's 122 against England at Birmingham in 1996 accompanied the next highest of 18 giving a
ratio of 6.78. Overall it was the seventh best such performance in Test cricket. Laxman scored 121 runs in the post tea session (moving from
46* to 167). He became only the second Indian to score a hundred in a session after Mohammad Azharuddin who scored
103 runs (moving from 59* to 162*) between lunch and
tea on the second day of the Manchester Test against
England in 1990. Agarkar's second innings duck (not a 'golden' duck for
a change) was his fifth in consecutive innings. He now
holds the dubious distinction of recording most consecutive ducks along with Australia's Bob Holland who had
five ducks in consecutive innings in 1985 and 1985-86. Agarkar also suffered the mortification of failing to
score in both innings of two consecutive Tests. He
became the first Indian and eighth batsman to achieve the
embarrassing feat of two pairs in consecutive Tests
after Bob Holland, William Clark, Mark Waugh and Glenn
McGrath (all Australians), Bobby Peel and Robert Crisp
of South Africa. Agarkar became the ninth batsman in Test history to aggregate five ducks in a series. Agarkar, however,is only
the second batsman to do so while playing six innings
in a series after countryman Mohinder Amarnath who had
a sequence of 0,0,1,0,0,0 against West Indies in 1983-
84. The record of most ducks in a series is still held
by Australia's Alan Hurst with six ducks in 1978-79
Ashes series. Hurst, however, played 12 innings to do so. India's second innings total (261) is the third lowest
in Test history to include an individual 150 after Australia's 245 (C.Bannerman-165*) against England in the
very first Test match at Melbourne in 1876-77 and England's 252 (Graham Gooch-154*) against West Indies at
Leeds in 1991. The 482 runs scored on the third day (221 by Australia
and 261 by India) is the second most in a day's play
in a Test involving India. The record which still
stands is 588 runs for the loss of six wickets by England and India at Manchester on the second day in 1936
series. This performance is however the best in Test
cricket since 1952 when England and Pakistan made 496
for the loss of four wickets at Nottingham on the
second day. Glenn McGrath took 10 wickets in a match for the
second time in his career. The previous such occasion
was against West Indies when he took 10 for 78 at Portof-Spain in 1998-99. It was the 12th such occasion for Australia against India. The victory was Australia's seventh consecutive under
Steve Waugh's captaincy. Steve Waugh now joins England's
Johnny Douglas and West Indies' Viv Richards to record
7 successive wins. Now only West Indian Clive Lloyd (11),
England's Percy Chapman (9) and Australia's Warwick
Armstrong (8) have recorded more successive wins than
Steve Waugh. The innings defeat was India's first since losing to
West Indies by an innings and 46 runs at Calcutta in
1983-84. India had played 112 matches in between
without losing a Test by innings margin which just fell
short of West Indies' alltime record. WestIndies had not
faced an innings defeat in 117 consecutive matches from
1968-69 to 1984-85. Interestingly India has won 10 Tests by an innings
margin during this period - obviously all at home. India lost all the matches of a series for the fifth
time in its Test history. The other instances in three
match series were against England in 1967 and in 1974.
India had also suffered a 4-0 drubbing by Australia in
1947-48. However India's worst series defeat came in
England in 1959 and in West Indies in 1961-62 when it
lost all the five matches of the series. Australia has now played 603 Tests, won 257, lost 168,
drawn 176 and tied 2. On home soil Australia's performance is quite remarkable. It has won 164, lost 85, tied
1 and drawn 62 out of a total of 312 Tests in Australia making a winning percentage of 52.56. India has now played 331 Tests, won 61, lost 110, tied 1
and drawn 159. India's performance away from home portrays a dismal picture. India has won only 13 matches,
lost 70 and drawn 73 out of a total of 156 Tests
played abroad giving a poor winning percentage of 8.33. Steve Waugh has now captained Australia in 14 Tests,
winning 9, losing 3 and drawing 2. Sachin Tendulkar has now captained India in 23 Tests,
winning 4, losing 7 and drawing 12. 