Friday, September 7, 2001

At The Oval today, four years after playing his first Test, and three years after playing his only other Test, Ben Hollioake finally did what all of English cricket has been waiting for him to do. He rose to the small occasion, and made a County Championship hundred.

Playing for Surrey, the deposed champions, against Yorkshire, the new ones, Hollioake went to lunch unbeaten on 100 out of 437 for 6. You would never have known it was his first time. After racing to 43 last night, with Mark Ramprakash playing the anchor role at the other end, Hollioake paced himself this morning like an old pro. In the first 10 overs, he made four runs, while Ramprakash added 19. It must have been the early autumn start. It is asking a lot of a man as languid as Hollioake to expect him to take the field at 10.30.

On 47, he gave a quarter-chance, miscuing a lofted drive off the offspin of Andy Gray which might have been caught if the man running back from mid-on had been a less shambolic figure than Steve Kirby. Hollioake scampered two - his shotmaking may be princely, but his running between the wickets is highly professional - and then cannily helped himself to an easy one when Kirby was pushed back. That was the first 50 in the bag; now for the second one.

For Yorkshire, this match means nothing, and they have shown it, to the dismay of several other counties, by leaving out Darren Lehmann and Darren Gough. Their captain, David Byas, left himself with an attack consisting of Matthew Hoggard and a bunch of novices. To this lot, Hollioake is an old pro, and Ramprakash is a Chelsea pensioner.

The two of them treated the bowlers with a perfectly reasonable disdain. Richard Dawson, the latest holder of the England Boy From Nowhere slot once occupied by Hollioake, went for 24 off three overs, mixing half-volleys with long-hops that sat up and begged to be cut for four.

While Ramprakash sprinted through the 70s and 80s, Hollioake ambled to 66, happy to keep out Gray's tidy offbreaks. Then came the new ball, in the hands of two slapheads: Hoggard and Kirby. Hollioake ignored Hoggard's two looseners, then played a dreamy flick to midwicket for four which showed you why his big brother once likened him to Mark Waugh. The next ball was shorter, so he flick-pulled it for a huge six. As if curious, the sun came out for the first time in the day.

Ramprakash reached his hundred in the next over. The PA pointed out that it was his 55th; the subtext said, you've got a long way to go yet, Ben lad. Ramprakash settled down to a pantomime duel with Kirby. If the ball didn't go for four, Kirby followed through to within two inches of Ramprakash's visor, and gave him an ear-bashing. If it did go for four, and anything within reach did, it was Ramps who went up to Kirby and gave him an earful. How Kirby has bowled Yorkshire to the Championship, only the nation's batsmen can explain.

Mostly an amused spectator at this stage, Hollioake periodically unfurled a force past cover, which involved no force at all, or a flick to the rope at square leg, which made a sound like a fingernail flicking a ping-pong ball.

He brought up the 200 partnership with a delicious late drive for four off a man named Craven. He was into the nerveless nineties. There was just time to reach the hundred before lunch if he got on with it. A flick past the square-leg umpire took him to 94. Dreaming of reaching three figures with a six, he missed a pull off Kirby. Undaunted, he leant back and sent a smacking cut to the backward-point boundary, then pushed an old sweat's single into the covers to keep the strike and go to 99.

Byas changed the bowling, bringing back Gray, aiming to lure Hollioake into indiscretion the way many a county captain has in the past four years. Hollioake calmly worked the ball to square leg for a single. In a crowd of two or three hundred, maybe 50 rose to their feet, including the whole Surrey team on their balcony, led by a beaming Alex Tudor. Hollioake acknowledged the applause as if he was used to it. The PA didn't point out that it was his third first-class hundred: the other two both came for England A in Sri Lanka in 1997-98, when he was also opening the bowling.

Ramprakash was out in the same over, bowled dancing down the track for 131, so that was lunch. They had put on 215 after coming together in a collapse - five wickets had fallen for only 58. Hollioake hung back, letting Ramprakash take the acclaim. When he eventually trotted up the steps of the Bedser Stand, he looked studiously at his feet, but a small smile crept through the attempted nonchalance - a smile of satisfaction, perhaps, or knowledge of the ribbing that awaited him.

As he reached the dressing-room, a stentorian Surrey voice from within said: "Yeah! YEAH!" It wasn't clear who the speaker was, but the voice came from the general direction of Mark Butcher, who knows all about long-awaited hundreds.

Another, quieter, voice said: "About f---ing time."

Surrey later declared at 516 for 9 in reply to Yorkshire's 235. Hollioake was bowled by Anthony McGrath for 118.

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