After a Christchurch Test full of outstanding individual performances, it's no surprise that two of the chief protagonists - Nathan Astle and Matthew Hoggard - have broken into the Wisden 100, the list that ranks the greatest Test performances of all time. Hoggard is joined in the bowling list by Shane Warne, who tweaks into 48th after his marathon 70-over second-innings spell in his 100th Test at Cape Town last week. Astle's extraordinary 222 - the fastest double-century in Test history - enters the list in 71st place, though if New Zealand had won the match it would have made the top ten. It is second only to Bryan Young's 267 not out against Sri Lanka in 1996-97 (equal 66th) among innings played by New Zealander, and Astle is the first new entry in the batting list since Mark Butcher smashed 173 not out against Australia at Headingley last summer.

Hoggard also enters, in 82nd place, after demolishing New Zealand with 7 for 63 on the second day. Ironically, Hoggard's entrance means it's goodbye to the top 100 from another Yorkshire quickie: Fred Trueman, whose 7 for 44 against West Indies at Edgbaston is demoted to 101st as a result. Hoggard and Astle also move into second place in the bowling and batting lists for England-New Zealand Tests, behind Phil Tufnell (for his 7 for 47 at Christchurch in 1991-92) and John Edrich (for his 310 not out at Headingley in 1965) respectively.

Warne's 6 for 161 against South Africa was just 0.7 points away from being rated as his best-ever performance. He lies snugly below a certain SK Warne in 47th - that was for his 8 for 71 against England at Brisbane in 1994-95. Warne likes nothing more than terrorising startled Englishmen or South Africans, and it is fitting that those two countries were on the wrong end of his top two performances.

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