The full brunt of 'Flower power'

I have just witnessed something very special. I get no greater thrill in cricket than watching exhibitions of excellence.

Andy Flower, or as I like to call him 'the lone ranger', displayed his immense talent over four days in the first test in Harare and produced the best performance against South Africa since readmission.

In my opinion the previous best was Mike Atherton's lone vigil at the Wanderers some years back that saved the test. Andy's knock didn't provide a miraculous result for the struggling Zimbabwe team, but the sheer dominance of his endeavour was startling.

Remarkably he had no recent form coming into the match as a thumb operation had sidelined him for the previous two months. That injury, which has not fully recovered, was put to the test initially as Heath Streak lost the toss and Zimbabwe took to the field. Andy kept for 139 overs and didn't concede a bye. Welcome back!

It wasn't long before Zimbabwe were in trouble and Andy was called into action with the bat. This time Craig Wishart was well caught by Lance Klusener with the score on 51/3. Some 200 balls and 289 minutes later, he was the last bat dismissed. He received a rousing reception as he left the field following a superb 142 which included 21 fours and a six.

Not surprisingly Zimbabwe were still 314 runs behind South Africa's mammoth 600/3 declared, Shaun Pollock asked Zimbabwe to follow on.

'The lone ranger' had the 'luxury' of 51 minutes 'rest' before a near identical dismissal of Craig Wishart with the total at 25/3 had him on his way again.

Did he have a treat in store for us. Ten minutes short of ten hours later he left the field, unbeaten, to a standing ovation, one run short of his second double hundred.

To put things in perspective it is remarkable to reflect that he had spent 24 hours and 34 minutes on the field of play and only 2 hours and 5 minutes off it. His match total was 341 runs over 897 minutes including 45 fours and two sixes.

He had scored 50.4% of his sides total and had improved his personal test average from 51.4 before this test to 55.2 at the conclusion.

Although South Africa won the test convincingly by nine wickets, they felt the full brunt of 'Flower power'.

It is no surprise to see that he has leap-frogged to the number one ranking in the PWC test ratings.

Watch closely how the South Africans celebrate if they happen to dismiss him cheaply in the second test.