NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Hick hoists England

Zimbabwe-born batsman Graeme Hick steered his adopted England to a 3-0 series triumph on Sunday with one match to play.

Hick's 80 runs, scored in 95 balls and his first five wickets haul with off-spin bowling, enabled England to reach a total of 248 in their 50 overs, to which Zimbabwe managed only 163 in reply.

With Hick so dominant and given England's clear overall superiority, their performance was more than sufficient over the three internationals to wipe out any memories of a 3-0 whitewashing at the hands of Zimbabwe in Harare three years ago.

The remaining match of the tour on Wednesday will bring to an end England's almost four months long tour of southern Africa, where they were beaten by South Africa in a Test series and in the final of a one-day tournament.

But they could not be having a brighter finish. Hick's 80, which took him to 3,515 career runs in internationals, included 10 fours. He reached 50 in 50 balls but then dropped into a lower gear to ensure stabilising the innings after Nasser Hussain and Nick Knight were dismissed. Later he collected four Zimbabwe wickets with his off-spin, two of them stumpings by Chris Read.

England's middle order collapsed just as England appeared set for a huge score, with Zimbabwe spinner Dir Viljoen accounting for Darren Maddy (53), Mark Ealham and Chris Read while Gary Brent sent back Vikram Solanki.

The tourists slipped from 170-4 to 207-7 but Andrew Caddick and Craig White slammed 41 runs off the last 34 balls to give Zimbabwe a formidable but not impossible task on a good batting wicket.

Set to get 249 to win at almost exactly five an over, Zimbabwe lost two wickets to Darren Gough with 16 runs on the scoreboard. It was a setback but not so damaging as the run rate, which was generally only two an over and did not reach three an over until the 30th, by which time it was far too late for the home side to retain any expectations.

When two more wickets fell at this stage - Murray Goodwin and Stuart Carlisle, who had put on 67 for the third wicket - England were in full control of proceedings to win by 85 runs.

Hick's five victims rounded off a perfect day for this son of a tobacco grower in front of a 10,000 crowd of his fellow Zimbabweans for one of his, and England's, better days.