On August 16, 2000 a cricket match at the international level was played indoors for the first time in history. South Africa had toured Australia for a three-match ODI series from August 16 to August 20 in 2000. Cricket Australia (CA) came up with the unique idea of hosting cricket indoors at the Docklands Stadium in Melbourne to prevent the game from getting washed out due to unplayable weather conditions.
The historic day arrived with the players of both the teams getting introduced to the crowd of 25,785 with a 15-minute sparkling light show. The coin flipped in the favor of visiting skipper Shaun Pollock and he decided to field first.
Batting first, Australia were off to a woeful start. The team lost their top three batters -Adam Gilchrist, Mark Waugh and Ricky Ponting for 1, 17 and 16, respectively.
After the initial setbacks, Australia managed to bounce back stronger, courtesy of Michael Bevan and Steve Waugh. The two players scripted a 222-run stand for the fourth wicket to steer the hosts to a challenging score of 295 runs in 50 overs.
Bevan fell to Pollock after scoring 106. Waugh, on the other hand, remained not out as he played a scintillating innings of 114 runs off 103 deliveries at a strike rate of 110.68.
Chasing 296, South Africa got off to a decent but slow start. Gary Kirsten and Jacques Kallis settled nicely, got the start but Australian bowlers kept taking wickets regularly.
Ian Harvey was the pick of the bowler for Australia with his impressive spell of 10-0-41-3. South Africa managed 201/7 in 50 overs. Thus, Australia made an impressive start to the three-match series by winning the first ODI by 94 runs.
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