Hammond, the forgotten batting great

Kevin Pietersen and Alastair Cook are one step away from breaking England's record of the most centuries scored in a career. Andy Bull, writing in the Guardian, focuses on the man who had held the record for more than 70 years, Wally Hammond.

Hammond's batting, wrote Crusoe, was about "strength scientifically applied. He had a combined power and grace that I have never seen in any other man. I can't think human agency could do more to a ball. To field to him at cover point was a sort of ordeal by fire." When he made 240 at Lord's during the second Ashes Test of 1938, Hammond is said to have given only one chance, and that so fiercely struck it split the fielder's finger as he attempted the catch.