A DELIGHTED Graham Thorpe described his outstanding unbeaten hundred at Kensington yesterday as second only to his century against South Africa at the Oval last September, in what was his comeback Test.

“That was my best innings in Tests but this was right behind it,” Thorpe said. “It was a huge bonus to get anywhere close to West Indies’ total and it gives us a chance. It was a tough day and the team needed a performance from someone. I’m just glad I was able to put my hand up. I’m sure batting is going to get trickier as the match goes on and, ideally, we’d like to chase under 200.”

After an indifferent tour of Sri Lanka before Christmas when he made a single fifty in the Test series, Thorpe is back to his best. His experience of Caribbean pitches — this is his fourth tour of the region with an England representative side — is proving invaluable and he revealed that Kensington is one of his favourite grounds. He played a part in England’s celebrated Test victory here in 1994, with a punchy 84 in the second innings, and made 103 and 36 (run out) in the drawn Test of 1998. “I’ve always loved playing here,” he said.

“There’s a special atmosphere with the crowd so close and it was a great feeling to get a hundred with all this English support. (Simon Jones and (Steve Harmison did a great job.”

Thorpe praised the West Indies bowling. “Their discipline was very good, especially before lunch when (Pedro) Collins and (Corey) Collymore bowled good spells. It’s a bit of a new-ball wicket. At times, it’s reasonable to bat on, especially when the ball’s older and the bowlers are getting tired. If we’d been 80 or 90 adrift, it would have been very hard for us to come back.”