|
|
SA break new ground
Wisden CricInfo staff - March 16, 2002
South Africa made 340 for 5, their highest fourth-innings total to win a Test. The previous-highest was 297 for 4, against Australia at the MCG in 1952-53. South Africa have made more to draw a Test, 423 for 7 against England at The Oval in 1947. Theirs was the eighth-highest total to win a Test in all, the highest being India's 406 for 4 against West Indies in Trinidad in 1975-76.
When Shane Warne dismissed Ashwell Prince, he took his 450th wicket in his 101st Test. He is only the second man to achieve the feat after Courtney Walsh. Earlier in the match, Warne took his 100th wicket in 18 Tests against South Africa.
A result of South Africa 1 Australia 2 mirrored the last series between these sides in South Africa, in 1996-97. Then, as now, Australia won the first two Tests only to lose the third, which South Africa won by eight wickets at Centurion.
In his 38th match, Herschelle Gibbs made his sixth Test hundred and his first against Australia. It was Gibbs's second score of 50 or more in these back-to-back series, even though he has only been dismissed in single figures once. His scores were: 78, 9, 14, 21, 32, 10, 34, 47, 12, 39 and 104.
When he reached six in the second innings, Warne became the highest run-scorer never to have made a Test century. Warne has now scored 2091 runs at 16.60 in his 101 Test matches, with a highest score of 99. The previous record holder was India's Chetan Chauhan who notched 2084 runs at 31.57 in his 40 Tests. But Warne's batting has shown considerable improvement recently, and he is averaging 37.60 since the end of the last Ashes series.
Matthew Hayden's duck was his first single-figure dismissal since the third Test against New Zealand last December, when he also scored nought. In between those two blobs he has been in stunning form, scoring 795 runs at the Bradmanesque average of 99.38.
Neither Hayden nor Justin Langer registered a half-century in a Test for the first time since Headingley 2001 (a match Langer didn't play in). In the nine subsequent matches Hayden and Langer scored 1985 runs at a combined average of 76.35.
Australia were dismissed for under 350 in their first innings for the first time since Alex Tudor hustled them out for 190 at Trent Bridge in August 2001.
© Wisden CricInfo Ltd
|
|
|
