Andy Flower joined an elite group this week when he was left stranded one run short of a double century in his marathon act of defiance for Zimbabwe against South Africa in Harare.
It was only the sixth instance in almost 125 years of test cricket that a player has made 199. Where the ultra competitive wicketkeeper-batsman Flower stands alone is that he is the only one of the six to have been undefeated.
His match double of 142 (out of 286) and 199 not out (of 391) made him the second Zimbabwe player to have made centuries in both innings of a test, his brother Grant being the first.
All six members of the 199 Club have come in the past 16 years.
The other five are:
* Mudassar Nazar, for Pakistan against India at Faisalabad, 1984-85;
* Mohammad Azharuddin, for India against Sri Lanka at Kanpur, 1986-87;
* Matthew Elliot, for Australia against England at Leeds, 1997;
* Sanath Jayasuriya, for Sri Lanka against India, Colombo, 1997-98;
* Steve Waugh, for Australia against the West Indies, Bridgetown, 1998-99.
Only two players have made 299 in a test.
Perhaps inevitably, Sir Donald Bradman is one - and he was not out, against South Africa, at Adelaide, 1931-32 - while Martin Crowe is the other, for his 299 against Sri Lanka in Wellington in 1991.
The 99 Club is less elite - it has 62 members. New Zealand have seven entries in that list:
* John Beck, against South Africa at Cape Town, 1953-54;
* Sir Richard Hadlee, against England at Christchurch, 1983-84;
* John Wright, twice, against Australia at Melbourne, 1987, and England at Christchurch, 1990-91;
* Dipak Patel, in that same test against England;
* Mark Richardson, against Zimbabwe in Harare, 2000-2001;
* Stephen Fleming, against South Africa in Bloemfontein, 2001.
Among the curiosities of the 99 Club are:
There is one instance of three 99s being scored in one match - Majid Khan, Mushtaq Mohammad and Dennis Amiss all falling one short in England's test at Karachi in 1972-73.
Seven players have scored 99 twice in a test. Apart from Wright they are England's Mike Smith, Geoff Boycott and Mike Atherton; Richie Richardson of the West Indies; disgraced Pakistani Salim Malik and Australian Greg Blewett.
To compound their personal misery, Smith and Wright also scored 98 on one occasion in a test. Three players have been unbeaten on 99 in a test - Boycott, Waugh and Alex Tudor of England.
And in perhaps the most peculiar sequence of test scores, Australian lefthander Clem Hill, who made the first 99 in a test against England at Melbourne in 1901-02, scored 98 and 97 in his next two innings.
<i>Late cuts:</i> Select band of brothers in the 199 club
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