It was the 1543rd Test match in cricket history.
It was Zimbabwe's 49th and Bangladesh's second Test match.
It was the first ever Test between these two sides. Zimbabwe became second country after India to play against all other Test playing countries.
Seven players were making their Test debut in this match- Andy Blignaut, Dion Ebrahim and Brighton Watambwa for Zimbabwe and Javed Omar, Manjural Islam, Mohammed Sharif and Mushfiqur Rahman for Bangladesh.
At 15 years 128 days Mohammed Sharif became the third youngest player to play in Test cricket after Pakistan's Hasan Raza (14 years 227 days) and Mushtaq Mohammad (15 years 124 days). The accompanying table lists the youngest Test debutants. Incidentally Bikash Das at 18 years 119 days (v India at Dhaka in Bangladesh's inaugural Test) was the previous record holder for being the youngest debutant for Bangladesh.
Rudi Koertzen was officiating in his 25th Test. He became first umpire from South Africa and 30th in the world to stand in 25 or more matches. The other umpire Kevin Barbour was officiating in his second match.
Andy Flower (73) has now made atleast a fifty in last consecutive seven innings. With this he equalled West Indian Everton Weekes' world record of most consecutive fifties which was set in 1947-48. Flower's scores in his last seven innings have been : 65 (v NZ at Harare), 183* and 70 (v India at Delhi), 55 and 232* (v India at Nagpur), 79 (v New Zealand at Wellington)......and now 73. The following table gives details of players with most consecutive half-centuries :
Andy Blignaut, by returning the figures of 5 for 73 in first innings, now holds the record of best figures by a Zimbabwean in an innings on debut. The previous record was on the name of Brian Murphy who took 3 for 32 against West Indies at Port-of-Spain in 1999-00 (Though John Traicos finished with 5 for 86 against India in Zimbabwe's first ever Test, this was not his debut Test as he had previously played in three Tests for South Africa in 1969-70)
Blignaut's match figures of 8 for 110 was the best by a debutant for Zimbabwe bettering Bryan Strang's 5 for 50 against Pakistan at Bulawayo QC in 1994-95.
The ninth wicket partnership of 56 runs between Murphy and Nkala was the highest for Zimbabwe for this wicket at home soil. This obliterated the previous highest of 49 between Grant Flower and Andy Whittall against Pakistan at Bulawayo in 1997-98.
The partnership was also the second best for Zimbabwe in all Testshome or awayafter the 87 run-partnership between Strang brothers against Pakistan at Sheikhupura in 1996-97.
Manjural Islam's analysis of 6 for 81 is the best by a bowler in an innings for Bangldesh. He bettered Naimur Rahman's six for 132 against India at Dhaka. Interestingly both Rahman and Islam were playing their first Test.
Javed Omar (85*) became first Bangladesh batsman to carry his bat through the completed innings. He also became the 35th batsman in Test chronicles to perform this feat on 41st occasion.
Omar also became only the second batsman to carry his bat in debut Test after Australia's Jack Barrett who made 67* out of team's total of 176 against England at Lord's in 1890.
Omar's contibution of 50.60 % in Bangladesh's second innings was the second highest by any batsman against Zimbabwe. The record is held by Pakistan's Mohammad Wasim who contributed 54.24 % (192/354) in first innings of Harare Test in 1997-98.
Omar became first Bangladeshi and only the 18th batsman in Test annals to score a fifty in each innings on debut. The list includes five West Indians -Bryan Davis, Frank de Caires, Jackie Grant, Clive Lloyd and Sew Shivnarine, three Australians -Wick Darling,Bruce Laird and Peter Toohey, three Englishmen -Tony Greig, Cyril Poole and Peter Richardson, three New Zealanders -Graham Dowling,Noel Harford and Mervyn Wallace, two Indians -Dilawar Hussain and Sunil Gavaskar and a South African- Bruce Mitchell.In addition, seven batsmen have scored half-centuries in their first two innings but not in debut Test. They are West Indians Sherwin Campbell, Desmond Haynes and Desmond Lewis, Australia's Darren Lehmann and Ricky Ponting , England's David Gower and India's Rahul Dravid (Kepler Wessels also scored two fifties in his debut Test for South Africa after having appeared in 24 Tests for Australia.
The victory was second for Zimbabwe by an innings margin. The first such instance took place in 1994-95 when Zimbabwe defeated Pakistan by an innings and 64 runs at Harare in January 1995.Overall it was the 247th occasion of a side winning a Test by innings margin.