It was the 1520th Test match in cricket history. It was Australia's 608th and West Indies' 366th Test match. It was the 92nd match between these two sides. The record now reads: Australia 39, West Indies 31, drawn 21 and tied one. It was the 54th match between these two sides in Australia. The record now reads: Australia 27, West Indies 18, drawn 8 and tied one. It was the 314th match for Australia at home. Australia has won 166 and lost 85, while 62 matches have been drawn and one tied. It was the 28th Test match on this groundsixth between these two sides. The win was Australia's first on this ground against West Indies. West Indies emerged victorious in all previous five encounters. Umpires John Hampshire and Peter Parker officiated in their 15th and sixth Test respectively. Jason Gillespie made a comeback in to Australian side after about 15 months. His last Test was against Sri Lanka at Kandy in September 1999. Since then he had missed 13 matches in between. This was Courtney Walsh's 35th Test against Australia which makes him the West Indian with most appearances against Australia. He left Viv Richards (34) and Desmond Haynes (33) behind. Incidentally Englishman Colin Cowdrey with 43 appearances holds the distinction of playing in most Tests against Australia. Ridley Jacobs' innings (96*) is the fifth highest for West Indies against Australia after Jeff Dujon's 139 at Perth in 1984-85 and 130 at Port-of Spain in 1983-84, Clairmonte Depeiza's 122 at Bridgetown in 1954-55 and Gerry Alexander's 108 at Sydney in 1960-61. When he caught Courtney Walsh in first innings, Adam Gilchrist completed his 50 dismissals in Test cricket. By taking 11 matches to do so, Gilchrist became the second quickest to achieve this milestone. The record is in the name of South African Mark Boucher who completed his half-century of dismissals in his tenth match. Gilchrist, however,bettered the previous Australian record which was in the name of Wally Grout who took 13 matches to accomplish this feat. On the first day of the Test Glenn McGrath became the tenth Australian to complete a Test hat-trick. In his fifth over he first had Sherwin Campbell caught at first slip by Ponting. Then, he had Brian Lara smartly caught by Stuart MacGill at fourth slip. He completed his hat-trick when the skipper Jimmy Adams spooned a simple catch to Justin Langer at short leg. McGrath's hat-trick is the 28th such instance achieved by only 25 bowlers- Nine Englishmen, eight Australians, three West Indians, two Pakistanis, a South African, a New Zealander and a Sri Lankan. McGrath also became the fourth bowler to perform a hat-trick against West Indies after two Englishmen Peter Loader (at Leeds in 1957) and Dominic Cork (at Manchester in 1995) and another Australian Merve Hughes (also at Perth in 1988-89). The wicket of Brian Lara in the first innings was 300th for Glenn McGrath in Test cricket in his 64th Test. He became the third Australian after Shane Warne (366 wickets in 84 Tests) and Dennis Lillee (355 wickets in 70 Tests) and the 16th bowler in Test history to reach this landmark. Mark Waugh scored his 18th Test century in his 105th Test - his fourth in 25th Test against West Indies. This was just his second hundred under twin Steve's captaincy. The other being 100 v Pakistan at Brisbane in 1999-00. This was also Mark Waugh's 75th first class hundred, which takes him past Greg Chappell's tally of 74 hundreds (from 542 first class matches). Now only Don Bradman with 117 hundreds from 338 matches is ahead of Mark Waugh. Mark Waugh's 75 hundreds have come in 504 matches with 21 scored in county cricket for Essex. The wicket of Adam Gilchrist was 64th for Courtney Walsh against Australia in Australia which puts him ahead of Michael Holding who had a tally of 63 wickets from 14 Tests. Now only Curtly Ambrose has taken more wickets for West Indies in Australia - 78 in 14. Marlon Black, playing in his just second Test, achieved the dubious distinction of bagging a pair. He became the 37th West Indian (on 45th occasion) to do so. Interestingly Black was also dismissed off the very first ball he faced while making his Test debut in the previous Test. McGrath has now taken 203 wickets in 38 Tests won by Australia. He became the third Australian and seventh bowler in all to achieve the distinction of capturing 200 or more wickets in -won- Test matches. Others to do so for Australia are Shane Warne and Dennis Lillee. West Indian Malcolm Marshall holds the Test record. The details:
wkts For Tsts Balls Runs Ave Best SR ER 5WI 10WM
Marshall MD 254 WI 43 9678 4264 16.79 7-22 38.1 44.06 17 4
Warne SK 242 Aus 46 13457 5343 22.08 8-71 55.61 39.70 10 3
Walsh CA 233 WI 51 10826 4621 19.83 7-37 46.46 42.68 10 2
Ambrose CEL 229 WI 44 10173 3862 16.86 8-45 44.42 37.96 13 3
Wasim Akram 208 Pak 38 8496 3699 17.78 7-119 40.85 43.54 13 2
Lillee DK 203 Aus 31 7923 3709 18.27 7-83 39.03 46.81 17 6
McGrath GD 203 Aus 39 9477 3955 19.48 6-17 46.68 41.73 9 3
Waqar Younis 179 Pak 29 6149 3130 17.49 7-76 34.35 50.90 13 4
Trueman FS 177 Eng 34 7224 3063 17.31 8-31 40.81 42.4 11 2
Steve Waugh has now invited opposition to bat first after winning the toss on five occasions and has won all five. Steve Waugh also provided the 360th instance of a toss winning captain inviting the opposition to take first strike. Out of these 360 instances 119 have resulted in victory for their respective sides,140 draws and 101 defeats. A total of 15 Australian captains have used the tactic of inserting the opposition after winning the toss on 69 occasions, which has resulted in 34 wins, 16 draws and 19 defeats. Waugh has now joined Australian Allan Border and New Zealander Geoff Howarth in winning five matches after inserting the opponents. The Test record is held by West Indian Clive Lloyd with 10 such instances. Australia's Greg Chappell (8), another West Indian Viv Richards (8) and South African Hansie Cronje (6) follow Lloyd. The victory was Australia's 10th by an innings against West Indies and 65th in all. The victory was Australia's 12th in as many matchesa new world record. Steve Waugh's side bettered Clive Lloyd's West Indian team's record of 11 consecutive matches from 1983-84 to 1984-85 