Superb

What more can I say?  96 overs, 415 runs, two hundreds at strike rates above 70, full batting points and a great position going in to day two!

Hamilton-Brown's hundred in particular stands out, not just because it was 125 off just 130 balls, but he must've been under some really intense pressure.  He was dropped early on, just like he has been in the first couple of games, and he must've known he had to make this one count, and boy did he do just that!

Everyone knows what talent he has, but now he's shown it under some very trying circumstances.  Harinath and Ramprakash will feel like they've missed out on what is clearly a superb batting track, and Afzaal got out to a horrible shot again by all accounts.  94 runs from 5 innings is not good enough for a man of his talents, he's on borrowed time.

Then Steve Davies...well what a cracking signing he's turned out to be.  The only man who hasn't really failed once so far this season, and today he cracked an unbeaten 119 off 167 balls, really, really good show Steve.

Now lads, we need to get 500+ on the board on this pitch, Schoey is still there and can score plenty, then Nel ought to be able to biff a few and we'll be set.  We're in a good position to make this one very difficult to lose, and that's exactly what I was after.

I would still question the wisdom of playing two spinners at this stage of the season, I don't know how easy its going to be to get 20 wickets with that particular composition of attack, but that's for tomorrow.  For now though, lets do what we haven't been able to do in a while and give the players a big pat on the back and bask in their reflected glory.  Well played.