Andrew Jones      

Success came late for Andrew Jones who was almost 28 - and on his third province - when he won his first cap for New Zealand, and even then it wasn't a dream debut as his laboured 45 at Brisbane hardly impressed many in the media. But he settled into a solid No. 3 and his courage and tremendous powers of concentration won his critics over and his final Test record - 2922 runs at 44.27 - put him up among the best. And those statistics are even more impressive when it is observed that New Zealand won only six of his 39 Tests. His style was certainly not always orthodox, especially against the short ball where ...

Success came late for Andrew Jones who was almost 28 - and on his third province - when he won his first cap for New Zealand, and even then it wasn't a dream debut as his laboured 45 at Brisbane hardly impressed many in the media. But he settled into a solid No. 3 and his courage and tremendous powers of concentration won his critics over and his final Test record - 2922 runs at 44.27 - put him up among the best. And those statistics are even more impressive when it is observed that New Zealand won only six of his 39 Tests. His style was certainly not always orthodox, especially against the short ball where he developed a jumping technique which was often ungainly but usually effective. He might have been a purist's nightmare, but he was ruthless when set: five of his seven hundreds - all of which came in drawn Tests - were in excess of 140. That included his Test-best 186 against Sri Lanka at Wellington in 1990-91, when he and Martin Crowe added 467, at the time a Test record for any wicket.
Cricinfo staff