We are back doing another round of best performances and this time we will be looking at some world class all rounders of the last 25+ years and we are starting off with Andrew Flintoff from England who before Ben Stokes arrived to the scene was the best all rounder English cricket had and he made a lot of runs and took a lot of wickets for England and has won matches single handedly in both test matches and ODIs. We will talk about his records below.
Andrew Flintoff played international cricket from 1998-2009 and in those 11 years he played 79 Test Matches for England and he made 3845 test runs at an average of 31.78 with 5 test hundreds to his name and in the bowling department he took 226 wickets for England in test cricket at an average of 32.79 with 3 Five wicket hauls. In ODIs he played 141 ODIs for England and he made 3394 runs at an average of 32.02 with 3 ODI hundreds and he took 169 ODI wickets for England as well so to choose the Top 5 Best Performances of this player will be hard. Let’s get to it.
167 vs West Indies (2004)
This was the highest test match score for Andrew Flintoff in his entire career and he made this brilliant 167 while coming to bat at number 6 for England and he only took 191 balls to make these runs and it came at a strike rate of 87.43 and it consisted of 17 fours and 7 big sixes meaning a total of 110 runs in boundaries. It was a brutal assault on the West Indies Bowlers and England won the match by 256 runs.
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137 vs New Zealand (2002)
This was one of the best 3rd innings batting Performances in recent test cricket history and to come in at number 7 and play the knock and in the way that he did was sensational to watch. He came and started hitting fours and sixes against a very good New Zealand attack and he took 163 balls and he smashed these runs at a strike rate of 84.05 with 23 fours and 3 sixes which means a total of 110 runs in boundaries out of 137 total Runs which is exceptional and it helped England win the match by 98 runs.
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3/52 and 4/79 vs Australia (2005)
Like Ian Botham had that 1981 Headingley test match vs Australia this test match at Edgbaston was the test match of Andrew Flintoff and this is where he became an absolute legend of English cricket and his bowling Performances in both the innings was outstanding. In the first innings he room 3 wickets for 52 runs in 15 overs of fast bowling and Australia could only make 308 in the 1st innings. In the 4th innings Australia needed 282 to win and it looked like the would win but Andrew Flintoff had other ideas as he blasted through the batting order and after bowling 21 overs of hostile fast bowling he took 4 wickets for 79 runs and England won that test match by just 2 runs.
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104 vs Sri Lanka (2004)
Andrew Flintoff hit 3 ODI hundreds but this was the only one in which he led his nation to a win and that too on his own. England were batting first and Andrew Flintoff came into bat at number 6 and hit one brutal hundred from just 91 balls and he hit 9 fours and 3 sixes and he made these runs at a strike rate of 114.29 and due to his incredible hundred England won the match by 49 runs via the D/L method.
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5/19 vs West Indies (2009)
This was the last bowling performance in the ODI career of Andrew Flintoff and what a way to bow out of ODIs by picking a 5 wicket haul in the match and making England win like he mostly did. England made 172 in 29 overs and while chasing Sri Lanka were bowled out for 146 and mainly due to the best ever spell of 5/19 runs in 5 overs and he left English cricket as a legend.
