The 199-club

By Mohandas Menon

Andy Flower, who was left stranded one run short of a double century on the final day of the first Test between Zimbabwe and South Africa in Harare on Tuesday, became the sixth batsman in Test cricket history to record a score of 199. However, Flower's feat was unique since he is the only batsman to remain unbeaten on that score.

Australian Lindsay Hassett remained unbeaten on 198 against India at Adelaide in January 1948. That score was the highest unbeaten score made by a Test batsman without reaching a double hundred till Flower's 199.

Flower, meanwhile also missed the rare feat of scoring a 100 and a 200 in the same Test match. Only five batsmen (Doug Walters, Sunil Gavaskar, Lawrence Rowe, Greg Chappell and Graham Gooch) have had that distinction, with Graham Gooch scoring a triple and a hundred in the same match, against India, in 1990.

By aggregating 341 runs (142+199) in the Harare match, Flower became the first batsman to score 300-plus runs against South Africa in a Test match. Don Bradman's unbeaten 299 in one innings (at Adelaide in January 1932) was the previous best.

The 199-club (in chronological order): Mudassar Nazar - Pakistan vs. India, Faisalabad, October 1984; Mohammad Azharuddin - India vs. Sri Lanka, Kanpur, December 1986; Matthew Elliott - Australia vs. England, Leeds, July 1997; Sanath Jayasuriya - Sri Lanka vs. India, Colombo (SSC), August 1997; Steve Waugh - Australia vs. West Indies, Bridgetown, March 1999; Andy Flower - Zimbabwe vs. South Africa, Harare, September 2001.

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