THE BIG 40
* Stephen Fleming requires 113 runs, assuming he is out twice in the Napier test, to finish his career with an average of 40.
* He goes into the test with an average of 39.81, 7047 runs and nine centuries.
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Stephen Fleming is trying to be statistical as he prepares for his last five days of test cricket.
New Zealand's most-capped player, and captain, retires after the third and deciding test against England, starting at McLean Park in Napier on Saturday.
He has set goals for the series, although he knows achieving his targets hasn't always been his strong suit. He admitted yesterday he will depart the game with regrets, but wonders in time how much they will mean to him.
"I'll have a lot of regrets, most of them statistical, and most don't mean anything," the 34-year-old lefthander said.
"Once you leave the game, all the things you've been striving to do don't mean that much."
He began the series determined to pass 7000 test runs. He did so in his first innings of last week's second test at the Basin Reserve.
Another goal was a 10th test hundred. He's had four cracks in this fascinating series. His 66 in the second innings of the first test at Hamilton was his best chance so far.
He was in good touch before becoming the first victim of leftarmer Ryan Sidebottom's hat-trick.
He can still get to 10, and McLean Park's expected amiable nature for the batsmen should help.
Then there's the matter of retiring with a batting average of 40.
The basic guideline for those who believe those things to be the measure of the batsman, has it that those above 40 are regarded as good quality test batsmen; above 50 and you are "great".
The difference between 39.3 and 40.1 is minuscule, but to those who live by the numbers it matters.
Fleming needs 113 runs, assuming he is out twice in Napier, to haul himself up to 40; 73 if he is out once. He has talked about it before, but yesterday he put a different spin on it; team rather than self is what counts.
"Not much," he said of the personal importance of making it.
"That's my point. You can bust your gut and get so wound up about statistical goals that matter and that you deem important, but I don't think are important.
"If I average 45 the team might have won more games. It's not about me getting a badge of honour to wear on my chest for the rest of my life.
"I'm not that fazed. But if I get above 40 it means I've got another 100 runs and we've got a score that enables us to put pressure on England."
And for all his talk of trying to focus on numbers to set aside the emotional aspects of his final lap, he's never been fiercely motivated by statistics.
"I haven't been able to gear myself up as a player who achieves statistically great things. I love the thrill of battle, the competition, and it's probably left me a little short at times, but it's also given me great exhilaration and great rewards."
Fleming is adopting a deadpan attitude to try and ward off the emotions.
He knows they will creep in towards the end of the test, by which point he hopes New Zealand will be heading towards a series-clinching win.
He knows he will miss the camaraderie, the banter, the mateship that develops among players in team sports who have striven side by side for years.
But that's for later. For now there is a test and series to win. Forget personal objectives; that would be some way to round off a remarkable career.
