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Gareth Roderick pays tribute to Josh Baker after emotional century

"It was a lovely ovation for him today. We certainly felt his presence with us"

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Gareth Roderick said that he felt the spirit of Josh Baker spurring him on during his first-day hundred against Kent at Canterbury, in Worcestershire's return to cricket after the tragic death of their team-mate, at the age of just 20, last week.

Roderick, who opened the batting and made 117 out of Worcestershire's close-of-play total of 308 for 5, marked the moment of his century with a tap of Baker's squad number, 33, that has been embroidered onto the team's shirts for the rest of the season, and a glance to the heavens before saluting the 1000-strong crowd that had gathered at the St Lawrence Ground on the warmest day of the season so far.

With the flags above the Frank Woolley Pavilion flying at half-mast, the two teams had lined up on the boundary's edge before the start of play for a moment of reflection and a minute's applause, a gesture which Roderick admitted had affected him deeply as he walked out to begin his innings.

"It's been a very emotional day," he said at the close. "Obviously the boys are devastated at what's happened, but we've pulled together as a group and that was a lovely ovation for him today in his memory. I think it affected the boys quite deeply and we're quite moved. We certainly felt his presence with us today.

"If I'm being brutally honest, the round of applause had a profound effect on me. I didn't think it would, maybe naively, but I certainly felt him with me today and I thought about him a lot while we were batting out there. I think the boys can all feel him sitting on our shoulders up in the dressing-room."

Worcestershire have not yet confirmed the circumstances of Baker's death, which occurred at his flat just hours after he had taken three wickets in a second XI fixture against Somerset at Bromsgrove School, a fixture that was subsequently abandoned on the final afternoon.

Worcestershire did not play in last week's round of County Championship fixtures, but when the grieving players returned to training on Tuesday, five days after the incident, they were subjected to a scheduled round of spot testing by Ukad, the national anti-doping authorities - a development that was unrelated to Baker's death and was denounced as "at best insensitive and at worst incompetent" by the CEO of the Professional Cricketers' Association.

Roderick, however, channelled all the agonies of the week into a doughty innings of 281 balls and five fours, which was built around two key stands of 136 with Kashif Ali and 102 with Adam Hose, and only ended deep into the evening session when Joey Evison plucked out his off stump.

"I was very, very disappointed to get out at the end but it was a nice wicket to bat on, with not a huge amount of pace on it. At times it was tough to score, it was very true, but once you get in on that, you can actually kick on.

"We talked about in the morning, sometimes things are a bit bigger than cricket, a bit more important," Roderick said. "Some guys like the distraction of being able to put their mind elsewhere, other guys like to stay away to digest it individually and come to terms with what's happened.

"But today was just about making sure we pulled together as a unit and remembered him. And that's what we did. We carried him with us today, and thankfully we put together a decent day."