Ricky Ponting was captaining his side for the most time — 17 — in the WC. He went past Allan Border’s tally of 16 matches as WC captain from 1987 to 1992. For the record, India’s Mohammed Azharuddin has captained in most WC matches — 23 — from 1992 to 1999.

Kevin Pietersen’s 104 was his fourth three-figure score in ODIs in 48 matches. Interestingly, three of his 100s have come against South Africa.

The above-mentioned hundred by Pietersen was only the seventh for England in the WC and their first since 1996 when Graeme Hick made an unbeaten 104 against The Netherlands in Peshawar.

Curiously, the last three-figure score by an Englishman in the WC against a Test nation came way back in the 1987 edition of the WC, when Graham Gooch made 115 against India in Mumbai (then Bombay) in the semi-final.

Unfortunately, Pietersen now has the dubious distinction of being the first English batsman to register a three-figure score in a losing WC match. The previous highest score before this was the unbeaten 92 by David Gower, when his team lost to New Zealand by 2 wickets (and with 1 ball remaining) in Birmingham in 1983.

Meanwhile, Pietersen’s 104 was the highest by an Englishman against the Aussies in the WC. Bill Athey (in 1987) and Gooch (in 1992) had made identical score of 58 runs, while Pietersen’s teammate Ian Bell made 77 in Sunday’s match.

The 140-run stand between Ian Bell and Pietersen was the highest by any team against Australia for the 3rd wicket in the WC. The pair obliterates the previous best partnership for this wicket, which was 125 between the Sri Lankans Ashanka Gurusinha and Aravinda de Silva in Lahore during the 1996 WC final.

Matthew Hayden, during his innings of 41, became the first batsman in this WC to aggregate 400 runs. Playing in his 6th match he now has 436 runs to his credit. Incidentally he becomes the sixth Australian and 14th batsman overall to so for the 15th time (Tendulkar has achieved this on two separate occasions).

Ponting’s 86 was now the highest score by a captain against England in the WC. He just went past the previous best of 85 by South African Kepler Wessels in Melbourne in the 1992 WC.

During his above knock, Ponting became the only second batsman to aggregate over 700 runs as captain in the WC. He now has 763 runs, just behind the New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming who has 809 runs.

Australia’s 248/3 is now the highest winning total by a team batting second in this edition of the WC. Previously South Africa just managed to scrape out a one-wicket win over Sri Lanka, while scoring 212 for 9.

This win was Australia’s first in the last four matches against their arch-rivals. In February this year, England had beaten the Aussies in three successive matches.

This win also extends Australia’s unbeaten run in the WC to 24 (23 wins and 1 tie). The team last tasted a WC defeat (by just 10 runs) against Pakistan in Leeds on May 23, 1999.