Andy Flower's epic 145 in 164 balls for Zimbabwe against India at Colombo's Premadasa Stadium on Saturday has barged in at 61st place in the Wisden 100 one-day innings rankings. Considering he had already kept wicket for over three hours in blazing heat, this was one of the bravest knocks of them all, and secured 178.75 points. It reminded me of another Zimbabwean classic, Dave Houghton's 142 against New Zealand in the 1987 World Cup. Unfortunately both of these innings were played in vain, because of inadequate support from the other batsmen. Mohammad Kaif's matchwinning innings - the highest ODI score from No. 7 in the order - garnered 162.64 points, not quite enough to make it into the top 100. The main reason for that was the discrepancy between the bowling strengths of the two sides - Zimbabwe's bowlers aren't very highly rated.

We have received some comments since the Wisden 100 was introduced that too much emphasis is placed on winning a match. But Andy Flower's innings rated higher than Mohammad Kaif's, even though India won, which I think is correct.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd