Stephen Fleming is a professional cricket player, who was born on April 1, 1973, in Christchurch, New Zealand. His father served as the President of the South Christchurch Cricket Club. He married Kelly Pane on May 9, 2007 and the couple has a daughter and a son.
Stephen Fleming bats in the higher-middle order for the New Zealand cricket team. He is a good left-handed batsman, who has also tried his hands at bowling as a right-arm medium-paced bowler. He began his Test cricket career on March 19, 1994 in a match against India. Stephen Fleming scored 92 runs in his debut match and won the Man of the Match award for his remarkable performance. He scored his first Test century against England in the first Test match at Auckland in the 1996-97 season. During that season’s third Test match, he captained the team, when he was just 23 years old and became the youngest captain of his team.
With sharp reflexes and quickness while fielding, Stephen Fleming took 28 catches in 1997, which is the most number of catches taken by a fielder during Test matches. By scoring 7172 runs in 111 Test matches, he is the only New Zealand cricketer to have scored the highest number of runs and played the highest number of matches. Being the most capped Test captain (80 matches), Stephen Fleming also holds the highest Test score of 274 runs not out against Sri Lanka in the match at Colombo. He performed this feat in the 2003 New Zealand tour of Sri Lanka and went on to declare the match instead of staying to score a triple century. In April 2006, he scored 262 runs, a double-century, against South Africa in the second Test match at Newlands, Cape Town. Stephen Fleming and his team-mate, James Franklin, put 256 runs partnership for the 8th wicket, which is a record partnership in a Test match. Having served for more than ten years as the skipper of the New Zealand team, Stephen Fleming guided his side to win Test match series against India, England, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
Stephen Fleming made his maiden One Day International (ODI) appearance on March 25, 1994, when he played against India. At the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, he scored 134 runs off 132 balls against the host country and helped his team to a nine-wicket win. Stephen Fleming captained the New Zealand cricket team in 218 ODI matches and holds the record for the most capped ODI captain as of April 24, 2007. He is the only New Zealand player to score 8007 runs in 279 ODI matches. Stephen Fleming is one of the best fielders and the only New Zealander in the history of Test and ODI matches for taking 171 catches in Test cricket and 132 catches in ODIs.
Stephen Fleming played county cricket for the Nottinghamshire club and captained the team to secure its first County Championship (2005) title in 18 years.
After a successful career, which included 111 Tests and 280 ODIs, he announced his retirement from the international cricket on March 26, 2008.
Stephen Fleming represented the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 (T20) inaugural season. In his Twenty20 career, he scored a total of 1012 runs in 46 matches with an average of 23.00.
