View photos: Third testKEY POINTS:
As Stephen Fleming played his final test innings yesterday the thought persisted: Why is this man lost to New Zealand cricket?
For one last time he amply demonstrated that he remains New Zealand's best batsman.
He has good years and many runs left in him, and leaves a batting order which looks as stable as blancmange. But all good things end and Fleming departs with no sustainable argument that he was batting on borrowed time.
Yesterday, trying to save New Zealand - a feeling he's become acquainted with down the years - Fleming showed the touches which have been the hallmark of his career.
He got moving with a four through gully - which took him to No 31 on the all-time list of test runscorers - caressed another couple to the fence from Monty Panesar and suddenly, or so it seemed, he had reached 20.
It all seemed easy - the sumptuous drives, elegant strokes to the onside and assured cuts - and his 50 arrived appropriately with a sweetly-timed boundary through wide mid-on.
At 54, he ensured he would leave with a test average above 40. Statistics rarely tell a complete story but it was fitting he became only the eighth New Zealander, of those who have played more than 10 tests, to achieve it.
Just as the crowd was starting to wonder if Fleming would bid farewell with a 10th century, the end came. A half stab at a Panesar delivery, an outside edge and he was gone.
He had arrived to an English guard of honour and left with the crowd on their feet. His wife, Kelly, cried in the stand, Fleming's mother Pauline at her side. Fleming has never shown his emotions. As he walked off he admitted he first thought of his dismissal, then a mix of emotions sunk in, of family and "just enjoying the ovation".
"There were a lot of things to cram into 55 metres. It seemed to happen pretty fast," he said.
He might also have thought that of the last 14 years, during which he became New Zealand's most capped test player, longest-serving captain and highest runmaker and his flypaper hands snared more test catches than anyone other than Australian Mark Waugh.
It will be many years before another wields as much influence on the national team as he has. He turns 35 next Tuesday. He will be missed.
