It was the 1524th ODI in cricket history.It was the 423rd match for India and 335th for New Zealand.It was the 55th match between the two sides.The record now reads:
India 29,New Zealand 23,no result 3.It was the 17th match between the two sides on Indian soil.The
record now reads: India 13,New Zealand 3.It was the ninth match on this ground-seventh for India and first
for New Zealand.It was India's 41st match in the year 1999.India now holds the
record of playing most matches in a calendar year.The previous record
was of 40 matches-set by India in 1998.Umpires K Parthasarthy and SC Gupta were officiating in their ninth
and second match respectively.Alex Tait was making a comeback into the New Zealand side. He last played
for New Zealand against SriLanka at Dhaka oon 26-10-1998 thus missing
24 matches in between.Saurav Ganguly scored his ninth hundred in 124th match-his second in
14th match against New Zealand.Now only Sachin Tendulkar (24) has
scored more hundreds among Indians than Ganguly.Ganguly became 12th batsman to score nine or more hundreds.Among
lefthanders only Saeed Anwar (17) and Brian Lara (13) have scored more
hundreds than Ganguly.For second time in his career,Saurav Ganguly scored 150 runs in an
innings (the previous such occasion being against SriLanka at Taunton
on 26-05-1999 when he scored 183).Ganguly became only third batsman in
ODI history to have two scores of 150 plus in their career after two
WestIndian Viv Richards and Brian Lara.Ganguly's innings is the highest for India at batting position
one.The previous highest was Navjot Sidhu's 134* against England at
this same venue against England on 04-03-1993.It was the second occasion when Ganguly batted through out a
complete innings (the previous such occasion for him was against
SriLanka at Nagpur on 22-03-1999.He became second Indian after Sunil
Gavaskar to do so on more than one occasion.Gavaskar,incidentally,had
carried his bat on three occasions.Ganguly became sixth batsman to have the distinction of carrying the
bat against NewZealand after WestIndian Desmond Haynes (145* at
Berbice on 14-04-1985), Australian Geoff Marsh (126* at Chandigarh on
27-10-1987),Pakistan's Shoaib Mohammad (126* at Wellington on
08-03-1989),South African Dave Callaghan (169* at Centurion on
11-12-1994) and fellow Indian Sachin Tendulkar (186* at Hyderabad on
08-11-1999).The unbroken partnership of 119 runs between Ganguly and Robin Singh
is India's third best for sixth wicket against all countries.The
best,however,still remains the 127 run-partnership between Mohammad
Azharuddin and Ajay Sharma also versus NewZealand at Baroda on
17-12-1988.A century partnership for the sixth wicket has now been achieved on
two occasions against NewZealand and both times by India.The first wicket partnership of 99 runs between Craig Spearman and
Nathan Astle was the 21st partnership of 99 runs in ODIs.It was the
second such partnership for NewZealand and fourth against India.Nathan Astle became a victim of 'nervous ninety' for the fifth time
in his career.Only Martin Crowe (6) has more scores in nineties for
NewZealand.When he reached 24,Nathan Astle completed his 3000 runs in 94th
match (93rd innings).He became sixth NewZealander and 57th batsman to
do so.Saurav Ganguly won MoM award for 17th time in his career.This was
only his second award on Indian soil. 