Zak Crawley: Reaching maiden hundred an unbelievable feeling of elation

NICK FRIEND: By the time Crawley had successfully defended the final ball of an enthralling day in Southampton, England had reached 332 without any further loss of wickets, while Crawley had moved past his career-best first-class score

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Zak Crawley reflected on “an unbelievable feeling of elation” after reaching his maiden Test century at the Ageas Bowl on Friday.

The Kent batsman put on an unbroken stand of 205 with Jos Buttler for the fifth wicket, having first come together with the home side in a spot of bother at 127 for 4.

By the time Crawley had successfully defended the final ball of an enthralling day in Southampton, England had reached 332 without any further loss of wickets, while Crawley had moved past his career-best first-class score.

He had made 168 for Kent against Glamorgan in 2018, but he will return to the crease on Saturday morning unbeaten on 171 in the knowledge that he has an opportunity to turn his century into something even more significant.

“It feels great,” he said. “It’s just how I imagined it. It makes you want it more. Hopefully, I can get a few more after this.

“I was on 99 with one ball left [of Mohammad Abbas’ over] and I didn’t want to have to wait an over on 99, so I was pretty determined to play a shot at that ball.

“To find the gap and run two and know I’d got my first Test hundred, it was all a bit of a blur. I could see the lads up on the balcony; I was trying to keep calm but inside I was absolutely buzzing. It’s great to be out there with Jos; he played brilliantly and he was a very calm head for me out there and made it a lot easier for me.”

^{Crawley passed his previous career-best score of 168 for Kent against Glamorgan}

Playing in only his eighth Test match, Crawley has found himself batting in four different positions in his brief international career to date.

But as the ball beat cover and he set off for his landmark run, he recalled all the hard work that had taken him to this point.

“I could kind of see all the nets that I’ve done in the past and all the times that I’ve gone on my own to hit some balls,” he explained. “It just seemed all worth it. You do question yourself when you’re on a run of ducks or you’re on a run of low scores  and you can’t buy a run whether it was worth it or whether you’re better off doing something else. But it was a feeling that it was all worth it. That was a great feeling.

“I feel like I had a lot to prove and I still do, but it was nice to get a score today and get that monkey off your back.

“I still feel like I’m early in my career and still learning quite a bit every time I go out to bat, so it was nice to score runs today and I definitely feel more comfortable in myself now that I’ve scored a hundred. But there’s still plenty of hard work to do to prove myself at this level.”

Having come into the side as a youngster with a limited body of work behind him in the first-class game, Crawley believes that there is still more to come.

He added: “I think just being around this environment, you’re facing great bowlers in games and you’re facing great bowlers in nets, so there’s not much let-up there, so you have to improve. As long as I can stay around this environment, I think I will improve.”

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