"a superstar". Flintoff scored 78 in both the first and the third matches – he was not required to bat in the second – as well as 31 not out off 12 balls in the fourth, whilst taking three wickets in the same match. This led many pundits to speculate that Flintoff might just be back to his best. He won Man of the Series in the ODI home series against South Africa, where England won four-nil: the last match was washed out. He was both the top run-scorer and the top wicket-taker of that series. Still, though, his want of consistency frustrated the pundits. "Flintoff," wrote lPeter Roebuck some time later, "is a fine cricketer who has never quite worked out how he takes wickets or scores runs. Torn between hitting and playing, pounding and probing, he has performed below his highest capabilities." On England's tour of India, Flintoff started the series well. In the first warm-up match against the Mumbai Cricket Association, he scored exactly 100. It was his first century for England since the Fourth Test of the 2005 Ashes. His batting did not follow with similar successes in India and the West Indies, but his bowling remained strong, with a dozen wickets in the Caribbean at under 30 apiece, followed by a hat-trick in the final ODI series, becoming only the third English bowler ever to do so. In February 2009, the Chennai Super Kings of the Indian Premier League bought Flintoff for US$1,550,000 – $600,000 above his base price of $950,000. This makes him the highest-ever-paid IPL player, alongside compatriot Kevin Pietersen, and surpasses Mahendra Singh Dhoni's $1,500,000. But Flintoff did not find success at the tournament, held in South Africa due to General Elections, as after a difficult first few matches he was sent home for surgery following another knee injury. However, speculation over Flintoff's form ahead of the much-awaited 2009 Ashes series died down as he took six wickets in his first match back for Lancashire and left "several county batsmen...nursing bruised ribs and fingers". He also collected a half-century against Hampshire, although he was still yet to register a century in either domestic cricket or any form of the international game since that Trent Bridge instalment of the last home Ashes in 2005, which year also accounted for his most recent Test five-for. "It's always been an Australian trait to over-rate players