· Australia's total of 192 for 7 is their second lowest total in a tournament final while batting for the full allocated 50 overs. Their lowest, however, still remains 179 for 8 that they made against England at Sydney in 1986-87 Benson & Hedges World Series Cup final chasing a victory target of 188.
· Matthew Hayden (59) reached his fifty off 105 balls his slowest in ODIs. Hayden had scored an unbeaten 50 off 99 balls against New Zealand at Adelaide on 12-12-1993, which was his previous slowest fifty in shorter version of the game.
· Ricky Ponting (25) completed 1,000 runs in the finals / grand finals of ODI tournament when his score reached 19. He became third Australian after Allan Border and Dean Jones and only the sixth batsman in ODI history to do so. The accompanying table lists the most successful batsmen in finals / grand finals of ODI tournaments:
Runs | Batsman | For | Mts | Inns | NO | Ave | Hs | 100 | 50 | 0 |
1487 | SR Tendulkar | Ind | 36 | 35 | 4 | 47.97 | 134 | 4 | 9 | 4 |
1270 | ST Jayasuriya | SL | 30 | 30 | 1 | 43.79 | 189 | 1 | 11 | 3 |
1064 | DM Jones | Aus | 30 | 30 | 8 | 48.36 | 102* | 1 | 8 | 1 |
1057 | AR Border | Aus | 38 | 37 | 8 | 36.45 | 127* | 1 | 4 | 0 |
1019 | G Kirsten | SA | 20 | 20 | 5 | 67.93 | 118* | 3 | 7 | 0 |
1006 | RT Ponting | Aus | 27 | 26 | 4 | 45.73 | 140* | 1 | 6 | 0 |
· Australia's total of 192 for seven is the seventh lowest first innings total to win a final / grand final of an ODI tournament. The record of making the lowest ever first innings winning total in the final / grand final of a tournament is held by South Africa, who beat England by 38 runs after getting dismissed for only 149 in the 1999-00 Standard Bank International Series final. The following table lists the lowest winning totals achieved in the finals / grand finals:
Score | Overs | For | Vs | Venue | Date | Tournament |
149 | 45 | SA | Eng | Johannesburg | 13-02-2000 | Standard Bank Int'l |
160 | 48.5 | Pak | NZ | Sharjah | 15-11-1996 | Champions Trophy |
165 | 48.3 | Pak | WI | Melbourne | 20-01-1997 | C&U World Series |
170-8 | 44 | Aus | Ind | Sydney | 05-02-1986 | B&H World Series |
183 | 54.4 | Ind | WI | Lord's | 25-06-1983 | World Cup |
187-9 | 50 | Eng | Aus | Sydney | 11-02-1987 | B&H World Series |
192-7 | 50 | Aus | Pak | Amstelveen | 28-08-2004 | Videocon Cup |
· Shahid Afridi recorded his 15th duck in ODIs in his 181st match. With this he equalled the tally of Rameez Raja, Waqar Younis, Saeed Anwar and Moin Khan. Now only Wasim Akram (28), Salim Malik (19) and Inzamam-ul-Haq (18) have aggregated more ducks than Afridi for Pakistan.
· Ever since becoming Australia's captain in 2002, Ponting has led Australia in eight finals of six tournaments and have not faced defeat even once! The only time Australia did not emerge clear victorious in a final under Ponting's captaincy was in the Three Nations Tournament in Kenya in August - September 2002 against Pakistan, where the final was abandoned because of rain and both teams were declared joint winners.
· Australia have now won 26 tournaments consisting of three or more teams (including the 1994-95 World Series Cup). The last time Australia suffered defeat in a tournament's final was back in 1999 when they lost to hosts Sri Lanka by 8 wickets in Aiwa Cup final.
· Australia provided the rare instance of a side winning a tournament by registering only one win in the whole tournament. The only other such instance in ODIs was seen in 1985-86 John Player Tournament played between Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Pakistan in Sri Lanka. With each country winning one match, Pakistan were awarded the trophy on run-rate.
· Andrew Symonds won sixth Man of the Match award in his 98th match. Interestingly all his awards have come against sub-continent teams 3 v India, 2 v Pakistan and one against Sri Lanka.
Australia vs Pakistan, final ODI: Match report | Images | Scorecard
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