Statistical Highlights for the Second ODI at Pune
Mohandas Menon
Left-hander Dinesh Mongia became the 136th player to appear for India in LOIs.
Australian skipper Steve Waugh becomes the first Australian player to appear in 50 matches against India. He also becomes the fifth player in LOIs to do so. The others being Sri Lankans Arjuna Ranatunga (56 matches) and Aravinda deSilva (55) and Pakistanis Ijaz Ahmed (53) and Salim Malik (52).
VVS Laxman (51), playing in his 15th match scored his maiden fifty of his career. He bettered his previous highest of 45 which he made in the last match at Bangalore on March 25, 2001.
Hemang Badani (100), playing in his 10th match of his career recorded his maiden hundred of his LOI career. His previous highest score was the 77 he made against Zimbabwe at Rajkot on 14-12-2000.
Badani's hundred was the 12 three-figure mark achieved by seven Indian batsmen against Australia, with Tendulkar doing so five times, while Ajay Jadeja twice. Interestingly Badani became the only second left-handed Indian batsman after Saourav Ganguly to score a hundred against Australia. Ganguly has also made an indentical score of 100 at Melbourne on January 12, 2000.
Waugh's unbeaten 133 was the highest score made by an Australian batsman against India which betters his own score of 126 made at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on February 27, 1996.
Mark Waugh's hundred was his fourth hundred on Indian soil. He equals the tally of hundreds of New Zealand's Nathan Astle of scoring maximum LOI hundreds by a visiting batsman in India. For the record, Waugh's three other hundreds are as follows: 130 against Kenya at Visakhapatnam on February 23, 1996, against India at Mumbai on February 27, 1996 and against New Zealand at Madras on March 11, 1996 - all during the 1996 World Cup tournament.
It was his 18th hundred of his career. Now only Tendulkar (27) and Pakistani Saeed Anwar (19) have scored more hundreds in LOIs than Mark Waugh. During this knock he went ahead of West Indian Desmond Haynes, who has 17 hundreds to his credit.
This incidentally was his fourth hundred in his last eight innings since January 14, 2001 - 112 (not out), 58, 36, 102 (not out), 10, 173, 5 and now this unbeaten 133. He has now scored 629 runs (avg. 125.80) during this period.
He has now taken his aggregate to 680 runs (avg.113.33), which by far was the maximum runs scored during this calendar year beginning January 1, 2001. Following him is New Zealand's Craig McMillan with just 480 runs - 200 runs behind!
His hundred was the fifth at this venue and by far the highest. The previous highest was the unbeaten 115 by England's Mike Gatting on December 5, 1984.
Mark Waugh's 133 (not out) was the highest score by an Australian batsman while batting second in a LOI match. Teammate Adam Gilchrist had the previous highest score of 131 against Sri Lanka at Sydney on January 13, 1999.
The partnership of 143 runs between Waugh and Matthew Hayden was the highest for the first wicket at this venue eclipsing the previous best of 123 between Englishmen Graham Gooch and Tim Robinson against Sri Lanka on October 30, 1987 - in the World Cup.
The above partnership was the first 100-plus stand for the opening wicket against India since the unbeaten 168 put on by South Africans Gary Kirsten and Herschelle Gibbs at Sharjah on March 22, 2000. Since then in 21 matches the highest has been the 74 by Pakistanis Saeed Anwar and Imran Nazir at Dhaka during the Asia Cup on June 3, 2000.
The man of match award was Mark Waugh's 22nd of his career in 232 matches. He has now won the maximum such awards by an Australian player in LOIs. He went past his twin brother Steve, who has 21 awards in 308 matches for Australia.
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