Roderick, who opened the batting and made 117 out of Worcestershire’s close-of-play complete of 308 for five, marked the second of his century with a faucet of Baker’s squad quantity, 33, that has been embroidered onto the group’s shirts for the remainder of the season, and a look to the heavens earlier than saluting the 1000-strong crowd that had gathered on the St Lawrence Floor on the warmest day of the season thus far.
With the flags above the Frank Woolley Pavilion flying at half-mast, the 2 groups had lined up on the boundary’s edge earlier than the beginning of play for a second of reflection and a minute’s applause, a gesture which Roderick admitted had affected him deeply as he walked out to start his innings.
“It has been a really emotional day,” he mentioned on the shut. “Clearly the boys are devastated at what’s occurred, however we have pulled collectively as a gaggle and that was a beautiful ovation for him at the moment in his reminiscence. I believe it affected the boys fairly deeply and we’re fairly moved. We definitely felt his presence with us at the moment.
“If I am being brutally trustworthy, the spherical of applause had a profound impact on me. I did not assume it could, perhaps naively, however I definitely felt him with me at the moment and I thought of him so much whereas we had been batting on the market. I believe the boys can all really feel him sitting on our shoulders up within the dressing-room.”
Worcestershire haven’t but confirmed the circumstances of Baker’s dying, which occurred at his flat simply hours after he had taken three wickets in a second XI fixture towards Somerset at Bromsgrove College, a fixture that was subsequently deserted on the ultimate afternoon.
Worcestershire didn’t play in final week’s spherical of County Championship fixtures, however when the grieving gamers returned to coaching on Tuesday, 5 days after the incident, they had been subjected to a scheduled spherical of spot testing by Ukad, the nationwide anti-doping authorities – a improvement that was unrelated to Baker’s dying and was denounced as “at greatest insensitive and at worst incompetent” by the CEO of the Skilled Cricketers’ Affiliation.
Roderick, nevertheless, channelled all of the agonies of the week right into a doughty innings of 281 balls and 5 fours, which was constructed round two key stands of 136 with Kashif Ali and 102 with Adam Hose, and solely ended deep into the night session when Joey Evison plucked out his off stump.
“I used to be very, very disillusioned to get out on the finish nevertheless it was a pleasant wicket to bat on, with not an enormous quantity of tempo on it. At instances it was powerful to attain, it was very true, however when you get in on that, you’ll be able to truly kick on.
“We talked about within the morning, generally issues are a bit greater than cricket, a bit extra necessary,” Roderick mentioned. “Some guys just like the distraction of having the ability to put their thoughts elsewhere, different guys like to remain away to digest it individually and are available to phrases with what’s occurred.
“However at the moment was nearly ensuring we pulled collectively as a unit and remembered him. And that is what we did. We carried him with us at the moment, and fortunately we put collectively a good day.”
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket
