'Urging from crowd kept me going for Test century'

Nasser Hussain admitted last night that his first Test century since giving up the England captaincy was "an extra special moment that makes me very proud". In his second match since handing over to Michael Vaughan, his unbeaten 108 was the perfect answer to calls for him to be left out of the side and quashed any doubts over his appetite for cricket.

"I didn't think I had anything to prove but to dig deep and get a Test hundred makes me very proud," he said. "Apart from Butch [Mark Butcher] at times, we all had to work hard on that pitch and I was quite nervous in the 90s, which is unusual for me.

"But the crowd kept me going. I could hear people shouting, 'Come on, keep going Nasser' and that really lifted me. There was a great sense of release when I got there. The applause seemed to go on and on, and after acknowledging their support initially I had to raise my bat again.

"After our performance at Lord's, when we let Michael Vaughan down, for the public to turn out here and back us like they did today was fantastic."

Butcher, with whom Hussain shared a partnership of 189 after England had been 29 for 2, was happy to let the former captain take the spotlight, despite batting superbly himself to make 106. "Nasser was never going to turn up at Lord's and be 100 per cent fine after he had just given up the captaincy, and dropping a bloke on eight who goes on to get 250-odd did not exactly help his frame of mind," he said.

"But he has been extremely focussed in the last few days, probably having four or five nets to my one. Like the rest of us he was stung by the criticism after Lord's, criticism we fully deserved, and I think he had a point to prove since he gave up the captaincy. You know Nasser. When the vultures start circling, he is always likely to come up with something."

The South Africa captain, Graeme Smith, offered a hand of congratulation. "To get a Test hundred is always a great feat and I wanted to say 'well done'. By the way he got angry with himself a couple of times, you could tell he was very determined and focused," Smith said.