Spot of the Week
by Lawrence Booth
Tuesday, September 11, 2001

Andy Flower is not merely the best batsman in Zimbabwe. On current form, he's the best in the world. When Flower finally ran out of partners today on 199 not out, he had taken his tally in his last 15 innings to 1353 runs at the uber-Bradman average of exactly 123.

That sequence, which began with a second-innings 48 against New Zealand in September 2000, includes four centuries and seven fifties - and only one failure, which came against Bangladesh of all people. The full sequence reads:
48, 65 v New Zealand (H)
183*, 70, 55, 232* v India (A)
79 v New Zealand (A)
73, 23 v Bangladesh (A)
51, 83, 45, 8* v India (H)
142, 199* v South Africa (H)

Flower has now gone 19 innings since his last dismissal in single figures: 2 v England at Lord's in May 2000. And he has finally shown what he can do against South Africa. Not bad for a man who is still recovering from a hand injury.

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