• Modest opposition maybe, but England have won four consecutive one-dayers for the first time since 1997-98, when they won eight on the trot against Australia, India, Pakistan and West Indies, under the captaincy of Mike Atherton and Adam Hollioake. • England have also won their last seven one-dayers in Zimbabwe, and 12 of the last 13 meetings between the sides. Overall, England lead 14-7.

• When he reached 64 Grant Flower became the second Zimbabwean after his brother Andy to reach 5000 runs in ODIs. He was playing in his 165th match.

• A big day too for Craig Wishart, who became the 11th Zimbabwean to reach 1000 one-day runs when he reached 26. He was playing in his 58th match.

• James Foster made his fourth stumping in four matches, a strike rate unprecedented in England's recent one-day history: Alec Stewart has managed only 11 in 136 matches and Jack Russell six in 40.

• Paul Grayson become the seventh England bowler to take his first one-day wicket on this tour, after Matthew Hoggard, Jeremy Snape, Mark Ramprakash, James Kirtley, Ryan Sidebottom and Paul Collingwood.

• England's total of 280 for 9 was their highest in any one-day international in Africa. The previous-best was 265, which they scored in the preceding match in this series, at Harare. That equalled the total England made to beat South Africa at Bloemfontein in 1995-96.

• Paul Collingwood and Andy Flintoff also broke a one-match-old record -- their own fifth-wicket mark for England against Zimbabwe. They put on 97, eclipsing the 72 they added in the previous match at Harare.

• Paul Collingwood's half-century was his first in international cricket.

• Not only did Doug Marillier record his best one-day figures (4 for 38), he also doubled his wicket tally in ODIs. He is the latest in a long line of modest slow bowlers to return their best figures against England in recent times: Sanath Jayasuriya (6 for 29 for Sri Lanka at Moratuwa in 1992-93), Shahid Afridi (5 for 40 for Pakistan at Lahore in 2000-01), Ajay Jadeja (3 for 3 for India at Sharjah in 1998-99), Thilan Samaraweera (3 for 34 for Sri Lanka at Sydney in 1998-99), and even Brian Lara (2 for 5 for West Indies at Arnos Vale in 1993-94).

• Marcus Trescothick's 52 continued the recent trend of Englishmen scoring half-centuries on debut as captain, after Graham Thorpe made 62 not out in the first one-dayer at Dambulla in March 2001. Mike Atherton managed 50 on his captaincy debut in both Tests and one-dayers: 72 in the fifth Test against Australia at Edgbaston in 1993, and 86 against West Indies in the first one-dayer at Bridgetown the following winter. And Alec Stewart scored 74 in the second Test against India at Chennai in 1992-93, when he was standing in for the injured Graham Gooch.

• Marcus Trescothick is England's fifth captain this year, after Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe, Alec Stewart and Mike Atherton. This is a record for England -- though they did use four captains in 1988, when Mike Gatting, John Emburey, Chris Cowdrey and Graham Gooch all took charge against West Indies. They are not quite up there with Pakistan, who used six captains (Aamir Sohail, Rashid Latif, Moin Khan, Wasim Akram, Ramiz Raja and Saeed Anwar) in 1998.

• Trescothick is by no means England's most inexperienced one-day captain -- but he is almost the youngest. He is second only to Ian Botham, who was 24 years 184 days old when he took charge against West Indies at Headingley in 1980 in his 28th match. Trescothick is 25 years 289 days old, slightly younger than Mike Atherton (25 years 330 days) was when he captained in a one-dayer for the first time, against West Indies at Bridgetown in 1993-94.

• Trescothick is playing his 25th one-dayer, whereas Atherton was playing his 11th. And Nasser Hussain was playing only his ninth ODI when he took charge for the first time, against New Zealand at Auckland in 1996-97, but he was 28 at the time.

• England's greenest (and most unexpected) one-day captain was Norman Gifford, who was captain for his only two one-dayers when England sent a reserve side to Sharjah in 1984-85. But Gifford's was a strange kind of inexperience -- he was 44 years old. And Brian Close was captain in his only three one-dayers, against Australia in 1972, when he was 41 years old.

• Geoff Boycott also combined age and inexperience when he captained in an ODI for the first time -- he was 37 years old and playing his eighth match at Sialkot in 1977-78. He must have found it a taxing experience -- he didn't bat or bowl in the match.

• Trescothick is also the first Marcus to captain England, and the first Somerset man to do so since Botham.

• Trescothick has the longest single surname of any England captain apart from Ray Illingworth, whose name also contained 11 letters. Henry Leveson Gower and Freddie Gough-Calthorpe had more characters in their double-barrelled surnames.

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