Martin Crowe: The best Test batsman between 1985 and 1991

17 Test tons for Martin Crowe - the most by any batsman for New Zealand. The next batsmen in this list have four centuries less - Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson with 13 each. Crowe made centuries against seven of the eight opponents he played against, missing a hundred only against South Africa. His average of 45.36 is only bettered by Taylor and Williamson, at present, among those with 2000 or more runs for New Zealand.

5444 Runs scored in Crowe's Test career - the highest for New Zealand at his retirement in 1995. Crowe had gone past John Wright's tally of 5334 runs to become New Zealand's highest run-getter in Tests in January 1995, against South Africa in Cape Town. Even more than two decades since his exit from Test cricket, only two New Zealand batsmen have eclipsed Crowe's run-tally: Stephen Fleming (7172) and Brendon McCullum (6453).

58.46 Crowe's average in Tests between 1985 and 1991 - the best for any batsman with at least 2500 runs in the period. Crowe made 3391 runs in 66 innings in those six years. His 12 centuries in that period also were the most by any batsman, bettering Allan Border, Graham Gooch and Richie Richardson who made 11 centuries each. Crowe's average never reached 30 till his 21st Test match and the average in his last seven Tests was less than 20 as well. He averaged 56.20 in those 50 Tests between his 20th and 71st Test, and made 16 centuries.

456 Runs scored by Crowe in the 1992 World Cup - most by any batsman. He was adjudged Player of the Tournament for his performance, thus becoming the first player to get that award in World Cup history. In the first four editions, there was no such award. Being captain of his side, he is still the only one to have received this award as captain in World Cup history. His average of 114.00 in that World Cup is the best by a batsman in a single World Cup scoring 400 or more runs. The Nine fifty-plus scores by Crowe in World Cups are the most by any New Zealand player.

299 Crowe's highest individual score in Tests and his only double century. He is the one and only player in the history of Test cricket to be dismissed on 299; Don Bradman was not out on 299 once. Crowe was in fact the first player in the history of first-class cricket to be dismissed on 299; only one other player has managed that unlucky feat - Mike Powell in 2006. Crowe's innings came against Sri Lanka in Wellington in 1990-91 in the third innings of the Test, which remains the third-highest individual score in a team's second innings. It was the highest individual score for New Zealand in Tests until Brendon McCullum went past it against India, at the same venue, in 2013-14. Crowe had gone past Glenn Turner's 259, which was scored in 1971-72, to have the record to his name. Incidentally, Crowe was captain in that match and was dismissed by the opposition captain, Arjuna Ranatunga, making it the highest individual score at which a captain was dismissed by another captain. There has been only one more double-century innings by a captain getting dismissed by another captain: West Indies' Dennis Atkinson out for 219 to Australia's Ian Johnson in Bridgetown in 1955.

467 Runs added by Crowe and Andrew Jones for the third wicket against Sri Lanka (the innings in which Crowe made 299), which was the highest partnership for any wicket in Test cricket at that time. They beat a long standing record of 451 runs between Bradman and Bill Ponsford in 1934, which was equaled by Javed Miandad and Mudassar Nazar in 1982-83. Since then, there have been only two partnerships higher than that: 576 between Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama in 1997 and 624 between Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara in 2006.

56.02 Crowe's average in his first-class career, scoring 19608 runs in 412 innings. Among 469 batsmen who aggregated 15,000 or more runs in first-class cricket, only ten others had a better average than Crowe's. He made 71 centuries in his first-class career which is the second-most among all New Zealand cricketers behind Turner's 103. Crowe had a great ability of converting fifties into hundreds. His ratio of centuries to half-centuries in first-class career was 0.88 (71 centuries and 80 half-centuries). Among 166 players who scored 50 or more centuries, only the legendary Bradman (1.69) and Wally Hammond (0.90) had a better ratio than Crowe. In Tests also, Crowe made 17 centuries and only 18 half-centuries, which puts him eighth among the 71 batsmen with 15 or more centuries in terms of that ratio.