It wasn't just Sussex supporters who enjoyed Bas Zuiderent's maiden century against Hampshire on Monday.

The county's in-form batsman has quite a few friends and family back in his native Holland who follow his career and it seems they enjoyed his unbeaten 102 as much, especially after Zuiderent had warned a few of them the night before that he was going to get a big score.

"I spoke to my parents in Holland on Sunday evening because I felt so good, I was convinced I was going to get some runs.

"They get BBC over there and were following the scores on Ceefax all day.

"One of my best mates, Gijs, didn't even bother going to university on Monday because I told him on Sunday that I might do well, he just sat in front of the television watching my score go up."

By the time Sussex had recorded an emphatic 60 run victory, Zuiderent's mobile phone was close to meltdown because of the number of congratulatory calls and text messages he had received.

"I'd been getting them all day after people saw that I'd made my first hundred," he added.

"We're not allowed our phones on during the game and by the end there must have been about ten calls and a load more messages on there.

"Reaching my first hundred was a fantastic feeling, I was absolutely over the moon."

Zuiderent, 24, followed his Benson knock with another century, this time in the Championship, as Sussex staged a salvage operation at home to Nottinghamshire on Wednesday.

He had been threatening to make the breakthrough for a while.

He scored an important 53 in difficult batting conditions in Sussex's Norwich Union League opener against Worcestershire a fortnight ago and followed it up with innings of 22, 42 and then that hundred in the county's successful Benson and Hedges Cup campaign.

And although he only made six runs in two innings after ending a two-year wait for his Championship debut, he did enough at New Road and again at Hove this week to suggest he is ready to establish himself in Sussex's middle order in both forms of the game.

He revealed: "I worked hard on my game during the winter and, to be honest, I have felt really relaxed and confident since the start of the season. Now it's starting to pay off."

Zuiderent shared a county record second wicket partnership of 144 with Murray Goodwin and was happy to talk about the part his fellow Dutch international played in helping him score the first hundred at Hampshire's new Rosebowl headquarters.

"Murray is such a great guy as well as being a fantastic player. He gave me a lot of advice and it was such a pity that he got out for 87.

"When that happened I decided to bat through the rest of the innings and see us to a big total."

With five overs to go, Zuiderent was still on 80 and had some work to do to reach three figures.

But in one over from Dimitri Mascerenhas he clobbered 18 runs with four boundaries including a magnificent straight drive which bisected two hapless Hampshire fielders who were standing no more than 20 yards from each other.

A Sussex player is unlikely to play a much better stroke all season.

When he dropped Alan Mullally into the on side a few moments later to go to three figures there was no disguising his delight.

The bat was raised high in the direction of his jubilant team-mates before Zuiderent planted a smacker on his helmet badge.

Among the first to congratulate him when he came off was acting-captain James Kirtley who has made quite an impression with his team-mates with the way he has led the side during Chris Adams' absence.

Zuiderent added: "I have got a lot of respect for James, to be honest he has been an inspiration to the guys in the last couple of weeks.

"We're prepared to stick our necks out for him, just like we would for Grizzly (Adams)."

Follow the team's progress this season with match reports, statistics, fixtures and a whole lot more at Sussex Cricket 2001.