Best with bat, best with ball

The 4-0 victory scoreline against South Africa is among England's best in bilateral one-day series and was achieved largely due to Andrew Flintoff's all-round excellence. Batting at No. 5, he scored 187 runs at a strike-rate of 117.61 and was dismissed only once in three innings. With the ball, Flintoff came on first or second change and took ten wickets at 12.90 with an economy-rate of 4.20. He was the leading run-scorer and wicket-taker , a rare feat in both one-day internationals and Test series.

Flintoff has done it before, though, and is the only player to have topped the runs and wickets charts in a one-day series twice. The first occasion was the 2003-04 tour of Bangladesh, on which Flintoff scored three unbeaten half-centuries in his total of 177 runs, and his seven wickets - at an average of 9.00 - were two more than second-placed Mushfiqur Rahman.

The first player to top both batting and bowling charts in a series was India's Ravi Shastri. During the 1984-85 home series against England, Shastri opened the innings and also batted at No. 6 and No. 7 and scored 223 runs in five innings. He and Vic Marks shared first place among the bowlers with six wickets each, although the England offspinner had the better average. Shastri's all-round efforts, however, weren't enough to prevent England from winning the series 4-1.

Flintoff, Shastri, and others in the table above, however, did not have the best batting and bowling averages in the series that they dominated. Only Viv Richards, Graeme Hick and Andrew Symonds have performed that feat (minimum of 100 runs and two wickets). Richards did it in New Zealand in 1987, averaging 133 with the bat and 14 with the ball. He also became the first player to score a century and take five wickets in the same ODI in Dunedin. Richards' eight wickets were the most in the series but he was outscored by Gordon Greenidge, who made 252 runs at 126.

Six players have topped batting and bowling averages in a Test series - among them Jason Gillespie, who averaged 231 during the 2006 tour of Bangladesh because of his unbeaten double-century. Steve Waugh, however, managed to do it four times, though only two of his performances make our qualification of 100 runs and five wickets in a series.

Waugh played only one Test during the home series against South Africa in 1993-94 but scored 165 runs at an average of 82.50 and took four wickets at 7.50 apiece. On the return tour to South Africa in 1994, Waugh played three Tests, averaged 65 with the bat, took ten wickets at 13 apiece, and walked away with the Player of the Series award.

The next time Waugh topped both averages was in the 1995 Frank Worrell Trophy in the Caribbean. He scored his personal best of 200 in his final innings of the series to take his tally to 429 at an average of 107.25. Waugh wasn't anywhere close to the highest wicket-taker - Courtney Walsh with 20 wickets - but his five cost only 12.40 each. Waugh's fourth time was the 1998 Ashes, when he was the highest run-scorer and had the best average - 498 runs at 83 - and took two wickets at 14 apiece.

Only three players have led both the runs and wickets charts in a Test series. Australia's George Giffen did it first during the 1895 Ashes, scoring 475 runs and taking 34 wickets in the five-Test series. Ian Botham was the second to achieve the feat, 83 years later, against Pakistan in 1978. He pipped Sadiq Mohammad by two runs to become the highest run-scorer and tied for top spot among wicket-takers with Bob Willis and Chris Old. Wasim Akram was the most recent player to do it, against Zimbabwe in 1996-97.

Fourteen players have topped the averages for a particular team in a Test series but only two have done it in debut series. Sourav Ganguly scored two hundreds in his first two Tests and finished the 1996 tour of England with an average of 105.00. His average of 20.83 for six wickets was the best among Indian bowlers. Michael Clarke made his debut during the tour of India in 2004-05 and scored 400 runs at 57.14 and took six wickets at an average of 2.19.

Greg Chappell was the first player to top-score and take most wickets for a team in an ODI series. He made 174 runs - Richie Robinson was second with 82 - and took six wickets at 8.50 apiece in the three-match series against England in 1977,

Even if we relax the criterion from having the best ODI series batting and bowling average overall to just having the best averages for a particular team, only nine players have done it. Leading allrounders - Richard Hadlee, Imran Khan, Botham, Kapil Dev, and the like - are all missing from the table.

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