It was the 1687th ODI in cricket history.
It was Australia's 476th and West Indies' 417th match.
It was the 98th meeting between these two sides. The record now reads: Australia 43, West Indies 52, tied two and abandoned one.
Umpire Darrell Hair and Steve Davis officiated in their 69th and 25th match respectively.
Australia's total (338-6) was its highest against West Indies -home or away obliterating the previous highest of 288 for four at St.George's on 14-04-1999. Incidentally Australia's previous highest against Australia against West Indies in Australia was 281 for four at Brisbane on 05-01-1997.
It was also the highest total ever achieved in Australia. The previous highest was 337 for 7 also by Australia against Pakistan at Sydney on 04-02-2000.
The total was also the highest total made against West Indies in ODIs. The highest totals are listed below:TotalOversForVsSeries/Tournament VenueDate
338-6 50 Aus WI C&U WSC Melbourne 09-02-2001 329 49.3 SL WI Champions Trophy Sharjah 16-10-1995 306-5 55 Eng WI Texaco Trophy The Oval 26-05-1995 302-6 50 NZ WI [WI] Christchurch 11-01-2000Mark Waugh (173 off 148 balls) made the highest individual score by an Australian in ODIs beating Adam Gilchrist's 154 (off 129 balls) against Sri Lanka at this same venue on 07-02-1999 and the ninth highest overall. The accompanying table lists the highest individual innings in ODIs:BatsmanRuns BFR/100B VsVenueTournament
Anwar(Pak) 194 146 132.88 Ind Chennai(21-05-97) Ind Cup Richards(WI) 189* 170 111.18 Eng Manchester(31-05-84) Texaco Trophy Jayasuriya(SL)189 161 117.39 Ind Sharjah(29-10-2000) Champ's Trophy G Kirsten(SA) 188* 159 118.24 UAE Rawalpindi(16-02-96) World Cup Tendulkar(Ind)186* 150 124.00 NZ Hyderabad(I)(08-11-99) [NZ] Ganguly(Ind) 183 158 115.82 SL Taunton(26-05-99) World Cup Richards(WI) 181 125 144.80 SL Karachi(13-10-87) World Cup Kapil Dev(Ind)175* 138 126.81 Zim Tunbridge Wells(18-06-83)World Cup M Waugh(Aus) 173 148 116.89 WI Melbourne(09-02-2001) C&U WSC G Turner(NZ) 171* 210 81.43 EA Birmingham(07-06-75) World CupWaugh's innings was the highest by any batsman against West Indies bettering Sri Lanka's Avishka Gunawerdene's 132 at Nairobi on 04-10-2000. Incidentally the previous highest score by an Australian against West Indies was 127* by Allan Border at Sydney on 06-02-1985.
Waugh's 173 out of 338 represented 51.18 % of the team's total. It also represented the fourth best such effort by any batsman against West Indies. The details:
Batsmen dominating an innings against West Indies:Batsman%RunsTotVenueDateTournament
A Stewart(Eng) 52.08 100* 192 Nottingham 20-07-2000 Natwest Trophy G Wood(Aus) 52.00 104* 9/200 Adelaide 27-01-1985 B&H WSC A Border(Aus) 51.42 127* 6/247 Sydney 06-02-1985 B&H WSC M Waugh(Aus) 51.18 173 6/338 Melbourne 09-02-2001 CU WSC R McCosker(Aus)50.00 95 190 Sydney 18-01-1980 B&H WSCWaugh has now aggregated 1708 runs in 47 matches against West Indies which makes him the batsman with most runs for Australia against West Indies. He surpassed Allan Border 's tally of 1546 runs from 61 matches. Waugh, in fact, now occupies the second position among the most prolific run-scorers in ODIs against West Indies. The details:Runs BatsmanMInn NOAveHS100 500
1930 Javed Miandad(Pak) 64 64 7 33.86 100* 1 12 4 1708 M Waugh(Aus) 47 45 2 39.72 173 3 11 2 1624 Rameez Raja(Pak) 53 53 3 32.48 104* 2 8 3 1546 A Border(Aus) 61 60 6 28.63 127* 1 9 3 1202 Imran Khan(Pak) 49 47 11 33.39 77 0 8 1 1114 S Waugh(Aus) 50 48 8 27.85 72* 0 5 1 1075 Inzamam-ul-Haq(Pak) 35 34 4 35.83 90* 0 10 2 1048 Salim Malik(Pak) 46 43 5 27.58 91* 0 7 5Waugh on 66, reached his 8000th run of his career. He became the first Australian and only the fifth batsman overall after India's Sachin Tendulkar (9899 runs), India's Mohammad Azharuddin (9378 runs), West Indies' Desmond Haynes (8648 runs) and Sri Lanka's Aravinda de Silva (8427 runs) to do so.
Mark Waugh, thanks to his above innings, ended the series with 542 runs from 9 matches at 108.40. It was the second time that Waugh has aggregated 500 or more runs in a tournament. The other occasion being the 1998-99 World Series. Waugh had then aggregated identical 542 runs from 12 games. His performance is the fifth joint best by a batsman in a series or tournament as is revealed by the following table.
Most runs in a tournament:Runs BatsmanSeason Tournament MINOAveHS100 50 0
686 G Chappell(Aus) 1980-81 B&H WSC 14 14 4 68.60 138* 1 5 0 651 V Richards(WI) 1984-85 B&H WSC 13 11 1 65.10 103* 1 5 0 590 A Border(Aus) 1984-85 B&H WSC 13 12 3 65.56 127* 2 4 1 563 D Gower(Eng) 1982-83 B&H WSC 10 10 1 62.56 158 3 1 1 542 M Waugh(Aus) 1998-99 C&U WSC 12 12 1 49.27 85 0 6 0 542 M Waugh(Aus) 2000-01 C WSC 9 7 2 108.40 173 3 2 0 536 V Richards(WI) 1981-82 B&H WSC 14 14 1 41.23 78 0 5 1 525 A Gilchrist(Aus) 1998-99 C&U WSC 12 12 0 43.75 154 2 1 1 523 S Tendulkar(Ind) 1995-96 World Cup 7 7 1 87.17 137 2 3 0 514 D Haynes(WI) 1984-85 B&H WSC 12 12 2 51.40 123* 1 3 0 513 D Jones(Aus) 1990-91 B&H WSC 10 10 1 57.00 145 1 3 0 513 G Hick(Eng) 1998-99 C&U WSC 12 12 2 51.30 126* 3 1 2 513 D Haynes(WI) 1988-89 B&H WSC 11 11 1 51.30 111 2 3 1 511 J Wright(NZ) 1980-81 B&H WSC 13 13 1 42.58 81 0 5 0Brian Lara got out without scoring for the third time in this series. His other ducks had come against Zimbabwe at Sydney and against Australia on Adelaide. He now shares the dubious distinction of recording most ducks in a series for West Indies alongwith Winston Benjamin (in World Series Cup in 1998-99), Phil Simmons (in Hero Cup in India in 1993-94), Keith Arthurton (in World Cup in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 1995-96), Mervyn Dillon (in Champions Trophy in Sharjah in 1999-00), Sherwin Campbell and Nixon McLean (in this series).
West Indies' total (299) was its highest ever total against all countries batting second beating the previous best of 287 for five also against Australia at Georgetown on 18-03-1995. The total was West Indies' second best against Australia in all matches. The best still remains 313 for nine at St.John's on 22-02-1978.
It was also West Indies' highest 'all out' total against all countries. This obliterated the previous highest of 282 against New Zealand at Christchurch on 11-01-2000. Just for the record, the highest 'all out' total in all ODIs remains 329 in 49.3 overs by Sri Lanka against West Indies at Sharjah on 16-10-1995.
Australia has now won ten matches at a trot starting from the match against West Indies at Melbourne on 11-01-2001. It is now only one short of equalling West Indies' record of longest sequence of wins in ODIs. West Indies had won 11 consecutive matches from 04-06-1984 to 02-02-1985 (Though Australia had not lost a single match out of 14 from 12-01-2000 to 01-03-2000, it included a no result match). Hence technically West Indies holds the record of most consecutive wins.
Shane Warne has now taken exactly 50 wickets from 27 matches against West Indies. He became the second Australian after Craig McDermott (63 wickets) and fifth bowler overall to do so.
The title was Australia's 20th tournament win in ODIs and first since winning 1999-00 Carlton & United ODI Series. It was Australia's 14th World Series Championship win out of the 22 series played so far since 1979-80.
The man of the match award was 21st for Mark Waugh in his 230th match which equals his brother Steve's record tally for Australia.
It was Mark Waugh's 12th award in day-night matches which takes him past Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya's tally of 11 such awards. Now only India's Sachin Tendulkar with 17 awards is ahead of Waugh.
At the end of the series:Overall ODI record:Australia: played 476, won 271, lost 187, tied 6 and abandoned 12.West Indies: played 417, won 244, lost 160, tied 5 and abandoned 8.Zimbabwe: played 181, won 48, lost 125, tied 4, abandoned 4.
Captaincy record: Steve Waugh: played 87, won 55, lost 28, tied 3, abandoned 1. Adam Gilchrist: played 3, won 3. Jimmy Adams: played 26, won 10, lost 14, tied 1, abandoned 1. Heath Streak: played 24, won 6, lost 18.