Fleming joins some great names after
memorable test double
By Richard Boock
From the New Zealand Herald, 1 May 2003
Stephen Fleming's epic batting deeds
in the first test against Sri Lanka have left him respectably
placed in one of world cricket's most famous statistical
categories.
The New Zealand captain not only
swept past Martin Crowe's match total of 329 runs after
his double of 274 not out and 69 not out, he ended up
ahead of some bloke called Bradman on the all-time test
list.
Fleming's total of 343 pushed him
past the Don's then world-record of 334 at Leeds in
1930, when R. E. Foster's long-standing benchmark of
287 was overtaken.
That was the match in which Bradman
enthralled the Headingley crowd by scoring a century
before lunch on the first day.
It also promoted Fleming past Walter
Hammond's effort at Auckland in 1933, when the England
right-hander beat Bradman's total with an innings of
336 at Eden Park, scoring his third century in a mere
47 minutes.
By the time the New Zealand skipper
limped off at Colombo late on Tuesday night (NZ time),
having been required in the middle for virtually the
entire test, he was sitting in 12th place on cricket's
list of major contributions, just ahead of the deeds
of Andy Flower (Zimbabwe), Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka)
and VVS Laxman (India).
Flower's effort was notable for
the fact that his side still lost by nine wickets against
South Africa; Jayasuriya's because it was part of Sri
Lanka's world record innings total of 952 for seven
against India; and Laxman's because it almost single-handedly
turned the test and the series against Australia.
Just ahead of Fleming is Indian
great Sunil Gavaskar, who scored a double of 124 and
220 in a six-day test against the West Indies in 1971.
Nearer the top of the list are
the great feats in test history - record efforts from
Len Hutton, Gary Sobers and Brian Lara.
Former England captain Graham Gooch
heads the category after his astonishing double of 333
not out and 123 against India in 1990, followed by Mark
Taylor's 334 not out and 92 against Pakistan in 1998.
There is a New Zealand connection
for the third-highest run-scorer in a test - Greg Chappell
hammered 247 not out and 133 at Wellington in 1974,
and just for good measure his brother Ian scored a brace
of centuries as well.
On top of that, Fleming leads one
of the more obscure categories in world cricket, after
scoring more runs in a match than any other batsman
left undefeated in both innings.
The next highest is the mark of
270 set by India's Rahul Dravid, who in the summer of
2000 scored 200 not out and 70 not out against Zimbabwe
at Delhi.
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