Jimmy Adams, a lefthanded opener of modest record, has been Hampshireâ..s â..discoveryâ.. of the season, repaying the faith shown in him by Paul Terry and Shane Warne with two outstanding centuries, including a double at Trent Bridge.

This was always going to be the year which made or broke the affable Adams, a former England Under-19 batsman. At 25 and without a century in 50 first-class innings, time and patience were beginning to run out.

Another six matches and 12 innings came and went this summer before Adams, in a daylong cocoon of concentration at Headingley in testing circumstances, earned Hampshire an improbable victory chasing 404.

That innings has been a catalyst for the real Adams to emerge â.. no more tentative pushes and prods, betraying lack of self-belief. For the first time 1,000 runs beckon.

Six weeks later the former Loughborough batsman scored a magnificent unbeaten 262 against Nottinghamshire in a draw to confirm that his match-winning performance against Yorkshire was not in isolation.

The Wisden Cricketer, Pat Symes