KEY POINTS:
They are not the be-all-and-end-all of compiling solid test innings, but centuries sure help.
As Jacob Oram amply demonstrated at Lord's this week with his defiant 101 in the first test against England, they not only help set up wins but save matches as well.
There is a
counter-argument that if the batsmen collectively contribute a pile of 60s, 70s and 80s, it can have the same or better impact.
True, but centuries provide a galvanising effect. There's something about them - let's be honest, there's not much between a 95 and a 101, just as four for 60 can be so much more valuable than five for 105 but, in both cases, one is lauded and makes a player's statistics chart, the other doesn't.
New Zealand celebrated Oram's innings and must now try to work out where more of them will come from.
It is a stark commentary on New Zealand's test batting problems that, in their last 13 matches dating back to March 2006, they have scored just six centuries. Three have come from Oram, who by his own admission is not in the best batting form of his life. Indeed in the space of his last 20 innings, he's been out for 10 or less nine times; other than those three hundreds he's gone past 30 only once. Consistency has not been his byword.
Just two of those six New Zealand centuries have come from batsmen in the top four, the block charged with setting out a team's batting stall. Stephen Fleming scored 262 against South Africa at Cape Town in 2006 batting at No 3; opener Matthew Bell made 107 against Bangladesh in Dunedin last January in the comeback test of his all-too-brief return to international cricket.
The argument is on again whether Oram should bump up the order. He batted at No 7 at Lord's, one lower than usual.
He has been part of test cricket's best 6-7-8 batting axis along with Brendon McCullum and captain Daniel Vettori.
McCullum went to No 5 at Lord's and - to no great surprise - had no difficulties adjusting, with his second 90 in two tests at cricket's most famous ground.
Leave Oram and Vettori where they are, even if they are two of the team's three key batsmen right now. Why tinker with something which has been of great benefit to New Zealand in the past few years?
Best leave alone and work on the sizeable challenge of wringing big scores out of a top order still finding their test feet.
