New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, who toiled long and hard in the heat and humidity of Colombo, to score a total of 343 unbeaten runs against Sri Lanka, should take a good rest before he studies the statistical profile of his feats

Lynn McConnell30-Apr-2003New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, who toiled long and hard in the heat and humidity of Colombo, to score a total of 343 unbeaten runs against Sri Lanka, should take a good rest before he studies the statistical profile of his feats.It would be enough to tire out the most ardent statistician. But the nature of his achievement does make an outstanding impression on the record booksA complete statistical breakdown of Stephen Fleming’s 274 not out and 69 not out against Sri Lanka follows: (Statistics compiled by Duane Pettet)It was Fleming’s highest score, and first double century, in Test and first-class cricket. It surpassed his 174 not out against Sri Lanka, also at Colombo, in the summer of 1997/98 and was the highest score made by a New Zealander overseas. It headed off Glenn Turner’s 259 against the West Indies at Georgetown, Guyana in 1971/72.Clearly he enjoys scoring his centuries away from home because four of his five Test centuries have been scored overseas.The innings was his 20th first-class century.New Zealand players have now scored 11 double centuries, and Fleming was the ninth individual. Turner and Mathew Sinclair have scored two each.His score was the 28th equal highest individual innings in Tests and was the second highest individual innings for New Zealand and by anyone against Sri Lanka. Martin Crowe holds both the highest honours with his 299 at the Basin Reserve in Wellington in 1990/91.Only Sanath Jayasuriya’s 340 for the home side against India in 1997/98 ranks higher among scores made on Sri Lankan soil.The innings bettered John F Reid’s 180 made at the Colombo Cricket Club ground in 1983/84 as the highest by a New Zealand in Sri Lanka and was also the highest score in Tests at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium, supplanting Aravinda de Silva’s 206 for Sri Lanka against Bangladesh last year.Befitting his status among Test cricket’s captains, the innings was the sixth highest by a captain, and the second highest by a New Zealand captain.It was the ninth equal highest innings by a left-handed batsman in Tests and surpassed another of New Zealand great Bert Sutcliffe’s records as the highest innings by a New Zealand left-hander. Sutcliffe scored 230 not out against India at Delhi in 1955/56.His score was the eighth highest by a No 3 batsman in Tests and headed Sinclair’s 214 on debut, against the West Indies in Wellington in 1999/00 as the highest by a New Zealand No 3.It was also the ninth highest unbeaten innings in Tests and removed Bryan Young’s 267 not out against Sri Lanka in 1996/97 as the highest New Zealand unbeaten innings.Only Ken Rutherford (317), Mark Richardson (306) and Crowe have made higher first-class scores for New Zealand. It was the 12th highest innings by a New Zealander in first-class cricket outside of games for overseas sides. And it was the 16th highest innings in New Zealand first-class cricket.Of the 118 runs scored in boundaries (28 fours and one six), that rated as the seventh most runs scored in boundaries in a Test for New Zealand and the third most runs run in a Test for New Zealand. He ran 156 of his innings. Turner ran 171 of his 259 runs at Georgetown while Crowe ran 165 of his 299 at Wellington. Fleming had to run 205 of his runs in the match overall, which heads Crowe’s 187 at Wellington as the most by a New Zealander.The effort of scoring 162 runs on the second day was the fourth highest number of runs in a day by a New Zealander in Tests. Ahead of him were: 222 by Nathan Astle on day four against England at Christchurch in 2001/02, 173 by Crowe on day five against Sri Lanka in Wellington and 169 by Ian Smith on day one at Auckland against India in 1989/90.His 653 minute innings was the fourth longest by a New Zealander in Tests after Turner’s 704 minutes against the West Indies in Georgetown, Reid’s 685 minutes in Colombo and Mark Greatbatch’s 655 minutes against Australia at Perth in 1989/90.His 956 minutes at the crease throughout the match easily passed Greatbatch’s 876 minutes against Australia as the most time at the crease by a New Zealander in Tests.It was the second longest time at the crease in all Test cricket, behind Pakistan’s Hanif Mohammad who batted for a minimum of 970 minutes against the West Indies at Bridgetown, Barbados in 1957/58. This was because the time for his 17 runs in the first innings of the match in which he scored 337 is not known.In the game Fleming spent 1610 minutes – nearly 27 hours – all but 45 minutes of the match on the field of play.Interestingly, New Zealand has four players in the top 10 of players who have spent the longest time at the batting crease: Fleming (956), Greatbatch (876), Geoff Howarth (835) against England at Auckland in 1977/78 and John Wright (828) against the West Indies at Wellington in 1986/87.He faced 710 balls during the match – the equivalent of 118.2 overs. Of this he faced 267 deliveries (44.3 overs) from off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, taking 118 runs off his bowling without being dismissed.His unbeaten 343 is the 12th most runs scored by a batsmen in a Test and the highest for New Zealand, beating the 329 scored by Crowe at Wellington.It is also the second most runs scored in a Test by an individual without being dismissed, behind the 365 Gary Sobers hit in his solitary innings for the West Indies against Pakistan at Kingston in 1957/58.His current run is a record for the most runs between dismissals by a New Zealand batsman, ahead of Crowe’s single innings of 299 at Wellington. He has a chance to extend it when New Zealand play the second Test at Kandy, which starts on Saturday. The world record of 490 is held by Sobers, who added an innings of 125 in the Test following the Kingston knock.Of a miscellaneous nature, his two innings in the game mean that he is now 86 runs away from being the latest New Zealander to score 10,000 first-class runs. Eighteen others have achieved the feat.His double century was the highest score by anyone since Inzamam-ul-Haq’s 329 for Pakistan against New Zealand at Lahore last year.Fleming became the first New Zealand captain to lead the side in 50 Tests and the eighth player in the world to achieve the feat. He is now sixth equal with Viv Richards from the West Indies and Mark Taylor from Australia.His 172-run partnership for the second wicket is a record for New Zealand against Sri Lanka. Previously the mark was 140 by Bryan Young and Matt Horne at Dunedin in 1996/97.Fleming was the sixth youngest of the New Zealanders to have scored double centuries being 30 years and 25 days when he reached the mark. More than half of the New Zealand batsman to reach the milestone have been aged over 30.New Zealand’s 515/7 declared was New Zealand’s ninth highest total, the third highest of its scores against Sri Lanka and New Zealand’s highest total in Sri Lanka. The previous highest was 459 at the Colombo’s Cricket Club ground in 1983/84.