By IANS
Melbourne : Spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan has set a record for most ‘caught and bowled’ dismissals (30), eclipsing New Zealand’s Chris Harris’ tally of 29 during their Commoonwealth Bank tri-series league match against Australia at MCG here.
Muralitharan got past Harris’ record when he caught and bowled Michael Clarke after the batsmen had scored half-century.
The following are the other highlights of the match.
# Australia, with their 24-run victory, have won 32 and lost 7 out of 39 played against Sri Lanka at home.
# Under Ricky Ponting’s captaincy, Australia have won 125 games – lost 28, no result 8 and tied 2 – out of 163 games.
# Australia’s total of 184 for 7 off 50 overs is the lowest total in their last 12 matches against Sri Lanka.
# Sangakkara, with 282 runs (ave.56.40) is the leading run-getter in the 2007-08 Commonwealth Bank series, including one century and one fifty.
# Nathan Bracken, with 13 wickets at 14.76 runs apiece is the leading wicket-taker in the series.
# Ricky Ponting, when his score reached 8, became the leading run-getter in the triangular series in Australia. With his aggregate of 3903 at an average of 40.23 in 107 matches, Ponting has outclassed Allan Border’s tally of 3,899 (average 30.94) in 160 matches.
# Ponting (11) has aggregated 64 runs at an average of 10.55 in six innings (strike Rate 57.14) in this series so far.
# Andrew Symonds is averaging 8.40 in the competition – 42 runs in six innings (SR 57.53).
# In their last eight outings, an Australian opening pair has recorded a fifty-plus partnership only once – 65 by Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden at Sydney on Feb 8, 2008.
# Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey put on 90 runs for the fifth wicket, which is Australia’s second best for this wicket against Sri Lanka at MCG, next only to the 97 between Arjuna Ranatunga and Ranjan Madugalle on 14.1.1988.
# Sanath Jayasuriya has extended his unwanted world record for most ducks (31) in limited-overs Internationals. Jayasuriya was out on a duck for the second successive match in the Commonwealth Bank series. Jayasuriya is without a fifty in his last 18 ODIs.
# Clarke’s 29th half century in ODIs is his fifth against Sri Lanka.
# Michael Hussey’s unbeaten 64 is his first fifty against Sri Lanka – his 12th fifty overall.
# Hussey, during the course of his innings, completed his 2,000 runs in 81 games – 2004 at an average of 57.25 (S.Rate 87.70).
# Maharoof (10-1-20-2) produced his third most economical ten-over spell in ODIs.