A flurry of sixes, and a rare clean sweep

Cricinfo looks at some of the highlights of the cracker between New Zealand and Australia at Hamilton

20-Feb-2007

New Zealand's incredible one-wicket victory against Australia not only meant a clean sweep in the Chappell-Hadlee series, it also pushed Australia to their sixth defeat in their last seven ODIs. Cricinfo looks at some of the highlights of the humdinger at Hamilton.

New Zealand's total of 350 for 9 is the second-highest in a successful run-chase, next only to South Africa's 438 for 9 in that astonishing game at Johannesburg. This result also means that the top four successful run-chases in ODIs have all come against Australia.

Craig McMillan's 67-ball century is the fastest by a New Zealander in ODIs, beating Jacob Oram's earlier record of 71 balls against the Australians - again - at Perth in the CB Series earlier this year.

Australia's defeat at Hamilton was their fifth in a row. The last time they suffered such a dismal run was nine years ago, when South Africa and England combined to beat them in five successive matches.

This is also the first time since 1997 that Australia have been blanked 3-0 in a bilateral series. On that occasion, England had thrashed them by that margin in the Texaco Trophy series.

Matthew Hayden's unbeaten 181 has now become the highest ODI score in a losing cause, beating Robin Smith's unbeaten 167 against Australia in a Texaco Trophy match at Edgbaston in 1993. Hayden's score is also the third-highest by an opener who carried his bat in an ODI - Gary Kirsten scored 188 not out against UAE in the 1996 World Cup, while Sachin Tendulkar made an undefeated 186 against New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1999-2000.

The 26 sixes blasted in this match - 16 by Australia and 10 by New Zealand - equals the record for most number of sixes in a game. And no prizes for guessing which previous match had as many hits going over the boundary.

The 165-run stand between Craig McMillan and Brendon McCullum is the joint highest for the sixth wicket in one-day internationals. In September at Kuala Lumpur last year, Michael Hussey and Brad Haddin had added the same number of runs against West Indies in a match which was Hussey's first as captain. Australia's defeat in that game, coupled with their three losses here, means that Hussey has the unflattering record of having lost every ODI he has captained.

The only two players who have been a part of all four highest run-chases are Michael Hussey and Nathan Bracken, and neither has done a bad job in these games. Hussey has notched up scores of 88 not out, 81, 105 and 13 - 287 runs at 95.67 - while Bracken has taken 9 for 218 from 38.3 overs - an average of 24.22, and an economy rate of 5.66 runs per over.

Shane Watson's figures of 2 for 88 is the second-most expensive ten-over spell by an Australian in ODIs. Only Mick Lewis, who haemorrhaged 113 at Johannesburg last year, has gone for more. Watson's stats put to the shade Brett Lee, who twice went for 85 from ten.

This is the third instance of both teams going past 300 in successive games of a series. The first such instance was during India's tour of Pakistan in 2004-05, when both teams exceeded 300 at Karachi and at Rawalpindi. This was repeated in the previous edition of the Chappell Hadlee Series, when both New Zealand and Australia went past 300 at Wellington and Christchurch.

Matthew Hayden Shane Watson Brendon McCullum Michael Hussey Craig McMillan Australia New Zealand New Zealand vs Australia Australia tour of New Zealand

S Rajesh is stats editor of ESPNcricinfo. @rajeshstats