England v West Indies, 2nd Test, Trent Bridge, 2nd day

Strauss hundred leads strong England reply

England 259 for 2 (Strauss 102*, Pietersen 72*) trail West Indies 370 (Samuels 117, Sammy 106, Bresnan 4-104) by 111 runs

	Andrew Strauss scored his second century in successive Tests against West Indies © Getty Images

If Andrew Strauss' hundred in the first Test against West Indies on his beloved home ground at Lord's provided personal regeneration, another hundred in the second Test at Trent Bridge was an exercise in pampering. The weather was idyllic, the pitch was good natured and the West Indies attack was full of pleasantries. It was part Test cricket, part spa treatment.

Four overs remained on the second day when Strauss clipped an overpitched delivery from West Indies' offspinner, Shane Shillingford, to the midwicket boundary. In place of his yelp of achievement at Lord's was the expression of a man who had been cosseted in mind and body. "The wicket looked very placid," said Strauss, who looked very placid himself.

He has 21 Test hundreds now (six against West Indies), one behind the joint record held by Wally Hammond, Geoffrey Boycott and Colin Cowdrey. . Alongside him Kevin Pietersen, unbeaten on 72 at the close, was as frisky as a hare in mating season.

Strauss had a poor record on this ground - only two half-centuries in 13 attempts - and he got off the mark with a slash over the slips off Kemar Roach. But long before the end he played with a panache of old, driving and cutting effortlessly, his lacerating cut shot making Sammy's tactic of a deep gully an irrelevance.