It was the 1688th ODI in cricket history. It was New Zealand's 370th and Sri Lanka's 347th match. It was the 45th match between these two sides. The record now reads: Sri Lanka 17, New Zealand 25, tied 2 and abandoned one. It was the 19th match between these two sides in New Zealand. The record now reads: Sri Lanka 8, New Zealand 11. Umpires DB Cowie and DM Quested officiated in their 54th and 28th match respectively. The win was 32nd for Fleming as New Zealand's skipper. This makes him the skipper with most wins for New Zealand moving ahead of Geoff Howarth. However Howarth had only 26 defeats to his credit as against Fleming's 47. New Zealand's total (282-6) is its second highest against Sri Lanka in all matches. The best still remains as 304 for five at Auckland on 20-03-1983. The unbroken seventh wicket partnership of 85 runs between Chris Harris and Lou Vincent was New Zealand's best for this wicket against Sri Lanka. This obliterated the previous highest of 40 between Lee Germon and Harris at Sharjah on 07-11-1996. The fifty was Harris' seventh batting at position seven. He now holds the record of scoring most fifties at this position moving ahead of India's Kapil Dev and Pakistan's Moin Khan. Harris has now aggregated 1538 runs in 76 innings at number seven which makes him the batsman with highest run aggregate at this batting position. The previous record was held by India 's Kapil Dev with 1499 runs from 75 innings. The following table lists the most successful batsmen at number seven:
Runs Batsman For M I NO Ave HS 100 50 0
1538 C Harris(NZ) 90 76 24 29.57 59* 0 7 4
1499 Kapil Dev(Ind) 90 75 13 24.18 87 0 6 5
1238 I Healy(Aus) 96 78 21 21.72 56 0 3 9
1238 Moin Khan(Pak) 67 59 12 26.34 69* 0 6 3
1125 Wasim Akram(Pak) 95 80 9 15.85 86 0 3 8
Sri Lanka's total (269) is its highest against New Zealand batting second. This obliterates the previous highest of 257 for five at East London on 18-12-1994. The catch of Aravinda de Silva was 66th for Stephen Fleming which equals the record of most catches in a career by a fieldsman for New Zealand hitherto held by Martin Crowe. The 99 run-fourth wicket partnership between Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawerdene was the 25th partnership of exactly 99 runs in ODIssecond for Sri Lanka. The only other being the partnership between Aravinda de Silva and Hashan Tillekeratne against Zimbabwe at Colombo on 1996-97. It was also the fourth such partnership for fourth wicket in all ODIs. The match aggregate of 551 for the loss of 16 wickets was the highest in New Zealand- Sri Lanka matches. This obliterates the previous highest of 512 for the loss of nine wickets at East London on 18-12-1994. The win was New Zealand's first after five consecutive losses. Jacob Oram won his maiden Man of the Match award in his sixth match.
At the end of the series:
Overall ODI record:
Sri Lanka:played 347, won 139, lost 192, tied 2 & abandoned 14.
New Zealand:played 370, won 149, lost 199, tied 4 & abandoned 18. Captaincy record:
Sanath Jayasuriya:played 46, won 28, lost 16, tied 1 & abandoned 1.
Stephen Fleming:played 87, won 32, lost 47, tied 1 & abandoned 7.
