get me to my hundred.
When it came I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I knew I had to raise my bat and take off my helmet to acknowledge the applause, but I didn’t think it right to show too much emotion given that it was not going to determine the outcome of the match.
At least I have my name on the board now at Lord’s. A lot of great players are up there and I wonder just how many of them were scored to win or save a game. Hopefully if I get the chance to do it again, it will have grater meaning.
A lot of people have said to me just how much they enjoyed my 142 and hopefully I can now take it forward in a season when I have been playing and seeing the ball really well.
I feel refreshed now because I needed a week off after bowling about 70 overs in 12 days. It’s the most I’ve ever done in such a short time and left me extremely tired.
Now we move on to Trent Bridge where we must find a way to stop Graeme Smith, who has been in such phenomenal form for South Africa. Hopefully we can get him a bit quicker than we have because two double hundreds in the first two Tests has given them the initiative and the lead in the series.
I made my Test debut against South Africa at Trent Bridge in a match, which saw a magnificent duel between Michael Atherton and Allan Donald. I also hope the result is the same because we won that encounter.
But I will be looking for a better haul than the one wicket and 17 runs I scored. To be honest, I got carried away by the crowd and got out trying to hit Jacques Kallis over extra cover for six.
I am five years older now and still only 25, a fact a lot of pundits seem to forget, and hopefully I will be able to show how much I have matured in those five years.
Although I have always considered myself a batting all-rounder, it’s been my bowling that’s kept me in the side. Now I aim to show people that I have a greater awareness of what balls I can score off and which I should leave… and prove just how much I want to become a force for England.
Written by Martin Hardy on behalf of ISM