The key to Australia making the highest second-innings total in one-day history was the blistering opening partnership between Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden. With more than six-and-a-half per over required before the innings had even started, a fast start was essential. But as Shaun Pollock said after the game, anticipation is one thing, prevention entirely another. After 8.4 overs and 81 runs of carnage, the run rate was down below a run a ball, and Australia only had to play sensibly to win. Our graph shows where Gilchrist scored his runs, with 41 out of 52 (79%) coming on the leg side (79%). And over half of his runs (27 out of 52) came through midwicket, with 20 of those off the hapless Makhaya Ntini. Before this match, Ntini had never conceded more than 58 in a one-day international, but here he was massacred for 83 off 9.1 overs. Gilchrist alone smashed him for seven fours and a six in 22 balls. And Pollock hardly got off lightly either: never before can he have gone for three sixes in his first two overs.

What was startling about Australia's ferocious opening is that they managed to score at 10 an over without taking undue risks. Between them, Gilchrist and Hayden walloped 87 off 63 balls, and they were in control of 81% of their shots (51 out of 63). In a Test match, where circumspection ordinarily prevails, that figure is usually somewhere around 80%. To keep it at that level while pummelling boundary after boundary, off South Africa's best bowlers, is extraordinary.

Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com.

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