By Peter Roebuck at Worcester
First day of four: Worcs 353-9 v Sussex
GRAEME Hick has scored his 99th century in first-class cricket. Another hundred brings statistical immortality. Only 23 men have scored 100 hundreds. Among them, only Wally Hammond was younger than Hick is now, and only Don Bradman and Denis Compton played fewer innings. It isn't bad company.
But it is an achievement as frustrating as it is extraordinary; it has been a flawed career, a place among the almost mighty. Pretty soon a Test series will begin without him. Hick has batted 86 times for his adopted country and has only four hundreds to his name. Afterwards he said he would like to reach the landmark ``either at New Road or in a Test match''. Much has gone right. Something has gone wrong.
Hick's latest century was as matter of fact as a medical bulletin. It contained a familiar mixture of drives and pulls, presence and anonymity. His contest with James Kirtley was the highlight. Kirtley bowled with pace and swing and was played carefully. No one else commanded as much respect, and Hick took a heavy toll of wayward deliveries from Jason Lewry and Amer Khan, of which there was a steady supply. Only once Hick had been held at backward point were the batsmen forced to work for their runs.
Throughout the day Worcestershire scored quickly and lost wickets periodically, most of them to cat-like catches from the visiting captain, Chris Adams. Philip Weston was first to go, caught at slip as he nibbled. Vikram Solanki played some sumptuous strokes before being beaten by a sizzling outswinger and flirtation proved Gavin Haynes's undoing.
Next an innings of mounting authority from Tom Moody was cut short as Adams flung himself from slip to take a stinger. David Leatherdale chipped and clipped in his customary way before driving to cover whereupon Lewry redeemed his previous waywardness by cutting through the lower order so that the visitors left the sunlit field in good heart.
Hick has always hated a fuss and disliked the limelight. Accordingly, he yearns to get it over with. This match has a second innings.
Day 2: Bevan proves a match for Moody
By Peter Roebuck at Worcester
AT ten to one came Worcestershire's chance to dominate this match. Already three wickets had fallen as Phil Newport swung the ball around on a sun-blessed morning. Toby Peirce had been beaten as he pushed forwards, Chris Adams had edged to third slip after a couple of buccaneering blows and Wasim Khan had attempted a foolish single to cover. At 33 for three, Sussex needed a long innings from Michael Bevan their feline, busy guest from far away.
Tom Moody had taken the ball, initiating a contest between Australians of contrasting disposition, the genial and the bruised, the secure and the agitated, and both of them regulars in their country's one-day team. Moody pressed hard, Bevan drove lavishly and the stumps went cartwheeling. The crowd roared and then fell silent, realising the ball had been illegitimate. Had the call been heard? Only Bevan, on 19, can say.
Thereafter the New South Welshman batted fluently, flicking boundaries off his pads, smoothing back-foot drives through cover and between times playing watchfully on an increasingly moody pitch and against a persistent pace attack. He was particularly severe on his fellow Antipodean, driving him straight and then twice through extra cover, forcing his withdrawal from the attack.
Bevan found a determined ally in James Carpenter, who moves with a certain poise and relies upon bottom hand to chip and push his way towards respectability. This pair took the score to 133 before they were parted as Carpenter's defences were breached.
Keith Newell held firm as a further 45 runs were added. Although his footwork is somewhat laboured and his hands lack his partner's creativity, so that singles are few and far between, his head was still and he can give the ball a fearful crack through cover. Spin was his undoing, a tentative prod ending in silly point's hands.
Meanwhile Bevan had been hurrying along, widening his range of shots, cutting and square driving so handsomely that a century presently beckoned. Much to Worcestershire's relief, Bevan fell short, beaten by Stuart Lampitt's hustling medium pace to leave Sussex struggling again. Amer Khan swiftly followed as Sussex's sea of troubles returned.
Day 3: Masterful Hick joins the elite
By Christopher Lyles at Worcester
Third day of four: Sussex 278 & 35-0 need 384 runs to bt Worcs (353-9 dec & 343-3 dec)
THEY came to New Road yesterday to witness an appointment with history and the adopted son of Worcestershire did not disappoint them. At 3.29pm precisely, Graeme Ashley Hick pushed Mark Robinson for two runs through midwicket and in the process joined a select band of cricketing luminaries who have scored a hundred hundreds.
With a perfect sense of occasion in front of his unerringly loyal supporters, Hick became only the 24th player in the history of the game to reach this phenomenal milestone.
What is more, Hick, at the age of 32 years and eight days, becomes the second youngest person to reach the historic figure, being surpassed only by Walter Hammond, who attained his hundredth hundred six days before his 32nd birthday. And only two other players have achieved the feat in fewer innings than Hicks's 574. Donald Bradman took 295 innings, a record that surely will never be broken, and Denis Compton 552.
As the crowd erupted in a mélange of ecstasy and relief, Hick punched the air in delight. The Zimbabwean born right-hander also became the third Worcestershire player to score his century of centuries on this scenic ground. Glen Turner celebrated his achievement in 1982 by enjoying a gin and tonic at the wicket and it was fitting that Tom Graveney, who celebrated the feat in 1964 and who is the current president of the club should stroll out to the middle with a chilled bottle of champagne and two glasses on a silver salver. It was a moment to savour.
Hick's innings was not necessarily vintage but it is some feat to score the requisite century at the first time of asking and he was naturally thrilled by his achievement.
``It felt from the very start of the day that the crowd were here for a reason,'' he said afterwards. ``Worcester is a very special place for me and if I could have chosen anywhere to achieve this apart from in a Test match I would have chosen here - in front of the people who have been watching me for the last 13 years. I wasn't worried this morning but the last 20 runs were a lot to go through and I was very relieved to get there. I had a sip of champagne and Tom didn't miss out either!''
Hick commenced his momentus innings at 11.35 am after Philip Weston had fallen to Robinson and he began circumspectly playing out a maiden to Robinson before crashing a short, wide delivery from Jason Lewry to the cover boundary. There was enough in the pitch to maintain the bowlers' interest and Hick interspersed his trademark cuts and pulls with a couple of edges and the occasional playing and missing.
But the crowd did not care as long as his wicket was still intact and every boundary was acclaimed with loud applause. He reached his fifty, which included 10 fours, from 80 balls and lunched on 53.
Immediately after the interval, he scored only one single in a 20-minute period before regaining his momentum, at one stage pulling the slow left-armer Toby Peirce for six over wide long on.
As the magical figure began to loom, so the nerves started to show and on 85 he mistimed a drive off Robinson. The crowd held their breath as the ball looped just out of the reach of James Carpenter at extra cover. And then, on 95, he attempted to cut James Kirtley, got an inside edge and the ball missed the stumps by a whisker before hurtling to the boundary.
The rest, as they say, is history and poor Vikram Solanki, who batted beautifully to reach his first championship century for Worcestershire - two balls before Hick reached his 73rd century for his county and 36th on this ground to eclipse two of Turner's records - will be remembered as the man who was at the other end.
The pair shared a second-wicket stand of 243 in 64 overs before Hick top-edged the medium pace of Keith Newell to Peirce running round to square leg. In all, he faced 202 balls and hit one six and 19 fours.
Asked about his England prospects, Hick said: ``I am not lacking any desire as far as my international career is concerned. I will just try and score as many runs as possible.''
There will be many more of those, have no doubt.
Day 4: Peirce perfection precedes washout
By Peter Roebuck at Worcester
Worcs (353-9 dec & 343-3 dec) drew with Sussex 278 & 123-0)
MORE than any game, cricket is at the mercy of the elements. It is also at the mercy of pitches, balls and various other vexations that combined to prevent this match reaching a satisfactory conclusion. A sudden storm during the lunch interval left puddles on the outfield and made a draw inevitable. No one was terribly keen to play an inconsequential hour or two.
Sussex had resisted stoically throughout the morning. Toby Peirce had turned his back upon the excesses of financial life in the City for just such moments as this and he took his chance capably, keeping a watchful eye upon the lower deliveries and punishing the errant. Wasim Khan also batted carefully and periodically drove through cover so that Sussex took lunch needing 296 to win in 63 overs with every wicket intact.
Lacking a deadly bowler and frustrated by a somnambulant pitch, Worcestershire could offer nothing beyond perseverance and it was not enough. They had played some impressive cricket. Most particularly, Graeme Hick and Vikram Solanki batted with aplomb.
It is hard to believe Hick's Test career is over. He remains a commanding figure. Adaptability has been his weak point. Nothing in his upbringing prepared him for the turmoil he found in his adopted land, or the complexities encountered on the field. He is a man for straight lines and a quiet corner, a likeable cricketer who bats with his forearms rather than his hands.
Solanki is an engaging player. In his hands, cricket bats do not slavishly follow the instructions of science. Rather, they have a life of their own. But he has a keen eye and a feel for the game.
Their partnership was unavailing. The elements intervened. Their opponents proved stubborn. After the match had been abandoned at 4pm, Hick walked across the field and into the arms of his daughters. First things first, though. An hour later he was again, practising.