Great at No. 5, slouches elsewhere

England's performance in the ODI series against South Africa was memorable for a number of reasons, but the most important was the remarkable return of the mighty Andrew Flintoff. He was splendid with the ball, and arguably even more effective with the bat; slotted in at No. 5, in a move that showed how much his captain, Kevin Pietersen, believed in him. Flintoff repaid that faith with three splendid knocks, scoring two 78s and a blistering 12-ball unbeaten 31 in a truncated game at Lord's.

The reason for Flintoff batting at five was probably his outstanding record there, but it also turns out that No. 5 is easily the best batting position for England: players batting there have fetched England more runs than those at any other position. (Click here for a series-wise list of England batsmen at five.)

Intuitively, that seems quite unusual, for you'd expect your best batsmen to occupy the higher slots in ODIs, so as to have the opportunity to play a greater number of overs. For England, though, it hasn't worked out that way: in 102 ODI innings since the beginning of 2004, the No. 5 batsmen average an incredible 50.65 at a more-than-acceptable strike-rate of nearly 88 runs per 100 balls. The average is higher than all other teams, and the strike-rate is only marginally lower than Australia's. England's batsmen have also scored nine hundreds at that position, which is more than any other team and nearly a third of all centuries scored at No. 5 during this period.

England's No. 5 has also been a very stable position during this period: only nine players have batted at this slot, of whom five have played no more than two innings. The bulk of the batting at this spot has been done by Paul Collingwood and Flintoff, and both have excelled. Collingwood moved down to No. 6 to accommodate Flintoff in this series, but in his time there he was superb too, averaging more than 42 and scoring three centuries, including back-to-back ones in the CB Series in 2007. Flintoff's stats are even more stunning - his average and strike-rate at five are both higher than Collingwood's. Pietersen himself has been terrific at this slot, with three centuries and three fifties in 12 innings. Even Owais Shah has a lowest score of 42 in his four innings at five.

Compare their efforts with the No. 5s from other teams, and it's obvious that England have a good thing going. Among batsmen who've scored at least 500 runs in this position since 2004, Pietersen and Flintoff occupy the first two positions in terms of averages, while Yuvraj Singh is the only other player to average more than 50. Andrew Symonds is the only other batsman with comparable numbers in terms of average and strike-rate. Among those who haven't handled the No. 5 slot well during this period is Brian Lara, who scored just four fifties in 27 innings and averaged a mere 30.43. During the 2005-06 season he went seven successive innings - and eight out of nine - without a double-digit score.

England's firepower at No. 5 has been all the more surprising given their numbers at other batting slots. Both Flintoff and Collingwood have done poorly at No. 6 - Flintoff's average drops to less than half what it is at five.

The report card for the top four is equally dismal. While Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene and many more high-class batsmen have adorned the top orders of other teams, England's cupboard has been quite bare. The batting average for their top four is a dismal 31.02, the lowest among the top eight teams in international cricket, and better only than Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. While the top four from Australia and Pakistan have scored 31 centuries during this period, England's have managed less than half that number.

Team-wise performances of batsmen from Nos. 1-4 in ODIs since Jan 1, 2004

Team	No. of batsmen	Innings	Runs	Average	Strike rate	100s/ 50s
Australia	19	529	19,277	40.41	83.14	31/ 128
South Africa	25	421	14,633	39.76	79.67	28/ 88
Pakistan	20	441	14,911	36.27	79.08	31/ 84
New Zealand	19	393	12,604	35.80	78.74	18/ 79
India	24	588	19,518	35.68	81.42	27/ 130
West Indies	25	441	13,900	35.36	73.31	23/ 81
Sri Lanka	21	503	16,281	34.64	77.70	29/ 100
England	21	436	12,598	31.02	74.57	15/ 72
Bangladesh	20	418	9952	25.13	66.81	9/ 64
Zimbabwe	24	348	8272	24.76	62.00	3/ 56

Click here for the team-wise performances at No. 6.

Ian Bell has scored the most runs in the top four for England during this period, but his average is a modest 35.80. Andrew Strauss, next in the list and the only other player to score more than 2000, averages just 32.50. In fact, none of the batsmen average 40, though Pietersen only falls short by a whisker. Michael Vaughan averaged just 28.20 at a strike-rate of 66.34 despite having got 45 opportunities to bat in the top four. The regular loss of early wickets ensured, though, that the lower middle order - specifically the batsmen at No. 5 - had enough overs left to aim for centuries. (Click here for a full list of England batsmen in the top four.)