• This was the 1646th Test match in cricket history
• This was England’s 805th and Zimbabwe’s 66th Test match.
• This was the fifth Test match between these two sides. The record now reads : England 2, drawn 3.
• This was the second Test match between these two sides in England.
• James Anderson and Anthony McGrath were making debut for England. They became 613th and 614th player to represent England in a Test match.
• Sean Ervine was making debut for Zimbabwe. He became 57th player to represent Zimbabwe in a Test match.
• Grant Flower became most capped player for Zimbabwe. He was playing his 64th Test match which takes him ahead of brother Andy’s tally of 63 matches for Zimbabwe.
• Steve Bucknor and Dave Orchard were officiating in their 80th and 37th match respectively.
• At 20 years 296 days Anderson became the 13th youngest player to appear for England and youngest since Ben Hollioake in 1997. He is also the fifth youngest to open the bowling for England in a Test match.
• Alec Stewart was making an appearance at the age of 40 years 44 days. He became 101st 40-plus player to appear in a Test match and the first Englishman since John Emburey (v WI,Manchester, 1995) to have done so. England have a lion share in this list with as many as 52 Englishmen making atleast one Test appearance after turning 40. They are followed by 16 Australians, 12 South Africans, 7 West Indians, 6 Indians, 3 New Zealanders, 2 Pakistanis, 2 Zimbabweans and a Sri Lankan.
• Stewart was playing his 19th match at Lord’s. He is now only two short of equalling Graham Gooch’s record of playing maximum matches on this ground.
• The 61 extras conceded by Zimbabwe are the tenth highest in an innings. The Test record is of 71 extras given away by West Indies against Pakistan at Georgetown in 1987-88.
• The seventh wicket partnership of 66 runs between McGrath and Ashley Giles is England’s best for this wicket against Zimbabwe. This obliterates the previous record stand of 39 between Mike Atherton and Chris Schofield at Nottingham in 2000.
• The ninth wicket partnership of 57 runs between Giles and Matthew Hoggard is a new record for England for this wicket against Zimbabwe putting into shade the 25 run-partnership between John Crawley and Alan Mullally at Bulawayo QC in 1996-97.
• The first wicket partnership of 20 runs between Don Ebrahim and Mark Vermeulen is Zimbabwe’s best for this wicket against England. The pair expunged the 17-run partnership between Grant Flower and Guy Whittall at Nottingham in 2000.
• The ninth wicket partnership of 51 runs between Travis Friend and Raymond Price (in second innings) is Zimbabwe’s best for this wicket against England. This eclipses the previous record stand of 24 between Guy Whittall and Heath Streak at Bulawayo QC in 1996-97.
• Mark Butcher’s innings of 137 is the highest by an Englishman against Zimbabwe.He just managed to eclipse Mike Atherton’s 136 at Nottingham in 2000.
• Butcher completed his 3000 runs in Test cricket when his score reached 31. He was playing his 51st match and 94th innings. Butcher became 30th Englishman and 125th batsman in the world to do so.
• Anderson became second Englishman to capture a five-wicket innings haul against Zimbabwe after Ed Giddins who had the figures of 5 for 15 at Lord’s in 2000.
• At 20 years 297 days, Anderson became the second youngest Englishman to capture a five wicket innings haul after Bill Voce who was 20 years 182 days old when he took 7 for 70 against West Indies at Port-of-Spain in 1929-30.
• The defeat was 11th by innings margin for Zimbabwe – second against England.

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Rajneesh Gupta)