Rocky Flintoff smashes England Lions century to continue remarkable rise

sanjeev

khelja|23-01-2025

, the 16-year-old son of England legend Andrew, smashed a quickfire century for England Lions against a Cricket Australia XI in Brisbane.

Flintoff was batting at number nine and made 108 off just 127 balls, hammering nine fours and six sixes to help the Lions post a solid first-innings total of 319 all out in the four-day match.

The teenager, who with Lancashire in June, is being on the Lions tour Down Under, where the visitors lost the first match by seven wickets.

Flintoff was a late call-up for the Lions tour after making a century for Lancashire's second XI in April - the month that he turned 16 - before making and has since played four first-class matches and seven List-A games.

Last year he also became the youngest player to score in the second Test against Sri Lanka.

His century in Brisbane helped his side recover from a perilous position at 161-7 to post 319, which meant the tourists had a first-innings lead of 105 before Cricket Australia XI reached 33-1 at the close on day two - trailing by 72 runs with nine wickets remaining.

Earlier in the Lions innings, opener Alex Davies had made 76 and Freddie McCann made 51 to help the recovery effort, while England Test-capped bowler Josh Tongue stubbornly supported Flintoff with five from 29 balls and Mitchell Stanley dug in for four from 27.

In the first innings, Lions seamer Pat Brown took a hat-trick as part of a five-fer and Cricket Australia were languishing at 55-4 before wicketkeeper Ryan Hicks led the rescue mission with a gritty 64. England Test spinner Shoaib Bashir struggled to figures of 1-62 from his 16 overs.

The Lions will now have two more days to potentially seal a win to level the series.

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