10 cricketers to bat on all five days of a Test
The stars need to align in a perfect way for a batter to enter his name into this catalogue.
7. Andrew Flintoff – England vs India, 2006
Andrew Flintoff is one of the greatest all-rounders to play for the Three Lions. Flintoff’s career expanded for a decade and the Lancashire lad invariably hogged the limelight for on and off-field reasons. On the tour to India in 2006, “Big Freddie” became the third English player to bat on all the five days of the same Test match.
He achieved this in the second Test of the three-match series in Mohali. Flintoff, who was also leading his team, batted first after winning the toss. In 103 overs, across three days as the match was impacted by rain, England made 300 on the back of half-centuries from Flintoff and Geraint Jones. Flintoff scored 4 runs on day one, 22 on the second day, and 44 on the third day.
India took a slim lead of 38 runs as Flintoff bagged four wickets. The all-rounder then scored a half-century in the second innings; 16 runs on day four and 35 on day 5. England were bowled out for 181 and India, riding on explosive batting from Virender Sehwag chased down the target of 144. Injuries, lack of form, a drunken photo on the front page of newspapers- Freddie’s golden period came to an end sooner than expected. In September 2010, Flintoff officially announced his retirement, not before amassing over 6000 runs and 400 international wickets.
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