Cricket: A ton off Strauss' shoulders as captain takes 20th 100

The hosepipe ban may still persist in his garden but for Andrew Strauss the drought that threatened to overwhelm him as England's cricket captain is over, after he scored his 20th test hundred at Lord's yesterday.

You could argue that the greatest threat to England's No 1 test status is a captain not scoring runs as it ends up distracting everyone. Strauss' previous century was against Australia in Brisbane 18 months and 25 innings ago. He has not been in appalling form but a year-and-a-half is an eternity for an opening batsman not to have made a hundred.

Strauss is a mightily successful leader, so a broader picture was taken when judging him that might not have applied to those in the ranks.

The drip-drip effect of not making that telling score can bend a man, especially one meant to lead by example, and no one should underestimate the pressure that confronted him. But one of Strauss's earliest and wisest pronouncements, made before he had even suffered his slump, was that the character of a batsman was defined not by good times but how he dealt with a bad run.

With that, yesterday's answer could not have more emphatic, after England finished the day ahead on 259 for three with him unbeaten on 121 and ready to inflict more misery on West Indies.

His relief, when he cut Darren Sammy, the West Indies captain, away for four to reach three figures was evident and he began pulling off his helmet well before the ball had crossed the boundary. His innings was one of character rather than charisma, though he drove well especially against Fidel Edwards and Sammy. During his lean period he had been telling doubters that he was hitting the ball well, though all players say that. The only one of my experience who did not was Allan Border who, having chopped-on once for Essex, was greeted by a dressing-room chorus of "Bad luck AB." "Bad Luck," he bellowed, "I'm batting like a busted a---."

Strauss never got that bad and at times he almost looked fluent yesterday. His only awkward patch came during the nineties when he suddenly began to get edgy in more ways than one. On 95 he was dropped at slip off Edwards, and while Aleem Dar defused the visitor's embarrassment by calling no-ball, Strauss's recklessness had not been prejudiced by it.

Ottis Gibson, the West Indies coach, would have drummed into his bowlers the need not to feed Strauss's cut or pull, so England's captain was made to work hard for his runs. But while Kemar Roach and Co largely followed that instruction, they offered little in the way of swing, disappointing given the near constant cloud cover which bowlers at Lord's normally love.

Without any swing, Edwards' low arm and loss of pace (from his pomp), made him easy meat compared to Stuart Broad, who took seven for 72. Height helps to make a batsman's footwork more tentative, something only Shannon Gabriel, 1.93m and making his debut, managed to do.

Sammy tried to raise his team with an effusive celebration but like the weather, his team have looked distinctly cool. One can sympathise with teams constantly under the cosh like Bangladesh, but the West Indies have a decent bowling attack which made it puzzling why their attitude yesterday smacked of it being one big chore.

It is not as if there are many better legal livings to be made in the Caribbean than representing the region playing cricket. Maybe tales of riches in the IPL has turned heads. If so, Gibson and Richie Richardson, the tour manager, have an even tougher task than first envisaged. Daily Telegraph