4 players who averaged the highest for their sides in four or more consecutive Test series

#3 Dudley Nourse

Dudley Nourse was the mainstay of South African batting for over a decade

Dudley Nourse had an amazing career for South Africa at a time they rarely won. Nourse's career was interrupted by the Second World War and despite that, he managed to remain a prolific batsman when cricket resumed after the war.

Nourse topped the averages for South African batting in five consecutive series.

Against Australia (1935-36): Clarrie Grimmett and Bill O'Reilly inflicted much misery on the South African batsmen and only Nourse could handle them with ease. He scored over 500 runs at an impressive average of 58. No one else could even average 35 in the series for South Africa.

Against England (1938-39): People remember this series because of the famous timeless Test which was left undecided when the English cricketers had to leave to catch their ship. It was a high-scoring series in which Dudley Nourse amassed over 400 runs at an average of 60.

Against England (1947): When cricket resumed after the war, South Africans were the first team to visit England for a Test series. England won the series easily but three South African batsmen - Alan Melville, Bruce Mitchell and Dudley Nourse - scored heavily. The latter topped the averages.

Against England (1948-49): England won the series but Nourse did no harm to his reputation as a prolific run-scorer. He was approaching 40 but his ability to score the runs when they mattered the most was not on the wane. Nourse once again scored 500+ runs, at an impressive average of 77.

Against Australia (1949-50): This was a tough series for the South Africans. They found the Australian bowling attack too hot to handle and Neil Harvey seemed to score majority of whatever the South Africans managed to put on the board. Despite that, Nourse batted admirably, scoring 405 runs at 45.

Nourse retired at the end of the next series, against England in 1951. In that series too, he batted well in patches and his series-average was second only to Eric Rowan's.