The giant who lacked fire

Hick says he was not ruthless enough, which those many bowlers who have been on the receiving end may find an odd thing, but I think he means that the fire did not rage as it might. He is just too nice a fellow. Maybe there was something just a little too mechanical or formulaic in his approach to an innings, one blurring into another. Few hundreds were memorable in the sense that the mind can distinguish between them. I didn't see his 178 in India — his maiden Test hundred and one of his favourites — but another, 141 at Centurion, I did. Yet apart from a vague recollection of a thunderous pull shot, I can't recall a further thing about it.