5 most prolific batting pairs for New Zealand across all 3 formats

#2 Nathan Astle and Stephen Fleming

Fleming (L) and Astle of New Zealand In Action

Back in the mid-1990 and the noughties, Nathan Astle and Captain Stephen Fleming were New Zealand's best batsmen. The right-handed Astle was an excellent attacking batsman who opened the batting in ODI cricket and batted in the middle-order in Tests.

Fleming, on the other hand, was a bit of floater and batted at plenty positions in both formats of the game. The pair, however, played only a handful of T20I games together.

Despite that, they batted together plenty of times in Tests and ODI cricket, as a result, Astle-Fleming is the 2nd most prolific pair in New Zealand's history across the three formats. Astle's powerful stroke-making and Fleming's classical batsmanship made them an excellent pair.

They were involved in as many as 177 partnerships from 1995 to 2007 and scored a total of 5802 runs. That being said, the average of 33.34 is decidedly unflattering. The pair put up a minimum of hundred runs on 11 occasions and added at least a half-century 32 times.