England captain Andrew Strauss admitted his second century of the series against West Indies came easier than the first one.
England skipper's lean run already a distant memory
England captain Andrew Strauss admitted his second century of the series against West Indies came easier than the first one.
Strauss followed up his 122 at Lord's with an unbeaten 102 on Saturday to help England close on 259-2 after the Windies were all out for 370.
The left-hander had not scored a hundred in 26 attempts - a run stretching back to November 2010 - prior to this series but his back-to-back efforts will go a long way into silencing his detractors.
"It's a strange game," Strauss told
Sky Sports. "I haven't done anything different technically.
"I think it's a big relief to have got that hundred last week and it just felt a lot easier here today because I wasn't fighting against myself so much.
"Your state of mind is quite a hard thing to control."
Battle
Strauss struck 18 fours in his 205-ball knock as England ended the day trailing by 111 runs with eight wickets in hand.
"(It was a) long wait for the hundred at Lord's so to get to two in two games is quite strange," Strauss added.
"To be fair the wicket was very placid today. It was a lovely wicket to bat on once we got through that new ball. As much as a battle with yourself as much as anything.
"It's nice to come through and obviously we're in a reasonable position to go on and get a big score now.
"It is always a special thing to get a Test match hundred, especially having not had one for a while.
"I'm not going to get blasé about getting one today.
"I had to concentrate pretty well, I had a bit of luck at times - which sometimes you need - and I'm delighted to get another hundred."
Sammy vindicated
It was also a day to remember for Strauss' opposite number Darren Sammy, who made his first Test hundred.
"I'm playing against the number one team in the world and everybody wants to perform against the best and to do that in this Test match with the bat, it feels good for somebody like me who has been under pressure from day one," he said.
"It's good to get a little bit of success."
The lower-order all-rounder and Marlon Samuels (117) put on 204 for the seventh wicket before Sammy, on 106, holed out to Kevin Pietersen at deep square-leg offTim Bresnan, who finished as the pick of the England attack with 4-104.
West Indies quickly subsided thereafter and Sammy acknowledged that, despite his own personal joy, his team should have made a bigger score, with Strauss and Pietersen (72no) giving England the platform for a considerable first-innings lead on a flat wicket.
"It's always a good feeling to score a Test hundred and it was a good innings for the team," said Sammy.
"We're quite disappointed me and Marlon couldn't continue because we knew how flat the wicket was as we saw when we bowled.
"We both should have carried on to get a bigger total for the team.
"I woke up feeling really good this morning. It's good to get a hundred but from a team point of view we didn't do what we had to today, which is bat through the first hour and take it from there.
"My plan was to get a big, big hundred."
