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Statistical Highlights 4th match: South Africa v England at Cape Town, 2-5 January, 2000

Mohandas Menon

• This match was the 1482nd in Test history.

• This match was South Africa's 239th and England's 765th in Tests.

• This match was the 119th meeting between the two sides.

• This match was the 32nd to be played at this venue. England was playing its 17th match at this venue.

• Hansie Cronje became the first South African and the seventh captain to lead in 50 or more Test matches. The full list:

Captains	For	M	W	L	D	T
AR Border	Aus	93	32	22	38	1
CH Lloyd	WI	74	36	12	26	0
A Ranatunga	SL	56	12	19	25	0
MA Atherton	Eng	52	13	19	20	0
IVA Richards	WI	50	27	8	15	0
MA Taylor	Aus	50	26	13	11	0
WJ Cronje	SA	50	25	10	15	0

• Cronje was now appearing in his 8th match at this venue - the maximum appearance by any Test player at Cape Town. South Africans Jimmy Sinclair and Dave Nourse have appeared in seven matches here.

• The partnership of 115 between Mark Buther and Mike Atherton was England's first hundred-plus partnership for the opening wicket since the 145 run partnership between the same pair at Nottingham against the same team in 1998. Since then in 14 matches and 28 innings not a single hundred-plus opening partnership was recorded by English openers.

• The catch of Hussain was Mark Boucher's 100th in his 25th match. He becomes the third South African to do so after John Waite (124 catches) and Dave Richardson (150). Boucher now becomes the 19th keeper in Test history to claim 100 catches. Boucher in doing so in his 25th Test match is now the second quickest to reach this milestone. Fellow South African Richardson needed 24 matches when he claimed his 100th catch, against England at Centurion in 1995-96.

• The four catches by Gary Kirsten in England's first innings equals the maximum catches taken by a South African fieldsman in a Test innings. He now joins seven other South African fieldsmen. The full list:

	Cts	agst	Inn	Tst	Series	Venue
AEE Vogler	4	Eng	2nd	2nd	1909-10	Durban (Lord's)
AW Nourse	4	Eng	1st	3rd	1922-23	Durban (Kingsmead)
B Mitchell	4	Aus	2nd	3rd	1931-32	Melbourne
TL Goddard	4	Aus	1st	3rd	1963-64	Sydney
AJ Traicos	4	Aus	1st	2nd	1969-70	Durban (Kingsmead)
AC Hudson	4	Ind	1st	4th	1992-93	Cape Town
HH Gibbs	4	WI	2nd	3rd	1998-99	Durban (Kingsmead)
G Kirsten	4	Eng	1st	4th	1999-00	Capt Town

• Kirsten now has 11 catches at this venue which is the maximum by any fieldsman. He went pass the tally of 9 catches by Eddie Barlow.

• Allan Donald's 5-47 in England's first innings was the 20th occasion he was claiming five-or-more wickets in a Test innings. He now becomes the 12th bowler in Test history to claim five-or-more wickets in an innings on 20 or more occasions.

• When Donald captured his second wicket (of Butcher) he became the highest Test wicket-taker at this venue. He bettered the previous record of 25 wickets in four matches held by Englishman Charlie Blythe since 1909-10. Donald also surpassed the tally of most wickets by a South African which was held by Jimmy Sinclair (24 wickets in 7 matches). Sinclair also held this record since 1909-10. Donald at the end of this match now has 30 wickets (avg 22.07) in seven matches at this venue.

• Daryll Cullinan's 120 was his 10th hundred of his career. He equals the tally of Gary Kirsten to become the joint scorer of maximum hundreds for South Africa in Tests. Cullinan has now become the 68th batsman to score 10 or more Test hundreds.

• Cullinan during his above innings, when on 85, reached his 1000th run against England. He becomes tenth South African to do so. He also becomes the 88th batsman to do so against England. He now has 1035 runs (avg 49.29) in 15 matches.

• Cullinan also moves ahead Bruce Mitchell's tally of 3471 runs and at the end of his innings occupies the third position in the South African all-time run-getters with 3474 runs. Only Gary Kirsten (3872 runs) and Hansie Cronje (3689) are ahead of Cullinan.

• The partnership of 90 runs between Cullinan and Boucher was the best for the eighth wicket against England at this venue. It obliterates the previous best of 69 runs between Dudley Nourse and Alan Melville in 1938-39.

• Shaun Pollock's two wickets in the second innings takes his and his father's (Peter) combined tally of wickets to 279, which is just one short of the aggregate of 280 wickets by the Kiwis - Lance and Chris Cairns - the most by a father and son combination in Tests.

• Pollock's 2nd wicket of Atherton was his 50th against England. He becomes the ninth South African and the 60th bowler to do so against England.

• The victory by an innings and 37 runs was South Africa's largest against England in Tests. The previous largest was the innings and 21 run victory at Johannesburg in the first Test of this series.

• The victory was South Africa's best at this venue bettering its previous largest win by an innings and 16 runs also against England in 1905-06.

• South Africa with this victory regains the Test rubber which it had conceded 2-1 when the two teams met each other in England in 1998.

• Cronje has now led in six matches at this venue and has won all six.

• South Africa has not been beaten in the last 14 Test matches of which they have won ten. Their last defeat came in July-August 1998 when England won successive Test matches at Nottingham and Leeds respectively.