Cricket Fourth Test: For almost a year now the crease has brought with it the ethic of the workhouse for Andrew Strauss, drudgery without respite, as the bowlers of Australia and then West Indies pinned him down, separating him from his natural game. Yesterday, though, in the evening session, it was high-holiday.

Benevolence from the West Indies pace bowlers allowed him fresh air and freedom.

Starved of his favourite strokes for so long, he was presented with a feast on which to gorge: width gave him back his square cut and the sliced left-handers' drive through point; shortness saw him sit back and pull through mid-wicket, a stroke on the missing list since he succumbed twice to it in Brisbane back in November; and there were enough half-volleys directed on to his pads to satisfy anyone.

This was carbo-loading after a protein diet.

By the close, which left England floundering at 121 for four, three wickets down in the last three overs of the day, in pursuit of West Indies' 287, Strauss had reached 72 with 11 boundaries, 10 of them in his first 50 runs.

He will have taken to his bed last night pondering on the century that for him follows the first landmark more often than for any other England Test player of substance or any from other countries for that matter, with the exception of Bradman and George Headley.

The early loss of his prolific opening partner, Alastair Cook, caught down the leg-side by Dinesh Ramdin as he attempted to leg glance Fidel Edwards and feathered it instead, upset him not a jot and together with Michael Vaughan, who found life a little more of a struggle but hung in there with considerable determination, he added 73 for the second wicket before he edged Edwards's rapid outswinger to be nonchalantly caught by Dwayne Bravo at second slip.

It precipitated a calamitous end to the day for England, however, in which Matthew Hoggard, clearly batting in a parallel universe to that normally occupied by nightwatchmen, launched expansively at Corey Collymore outside off-stump to be caught at first slip.

He was followed in the next over by Kevin Pietersen, who pulled violently at what proved to be the last ball of the day and under-edged to Ramdin to give Edwards a third wicket.

Earlier West Indies were not dismissed until the stroke of tea. That this was down to another brilliant innings from Shivnarine Chanderpaul almost goes without saying in a side that for the most part lacks the mental fibre at the top of the order to occupy the crease.

Unbeaten for 116 in the second innings of the previous Test at Old Trafford, he walked from the field here having made 136 not out, with 18 fours and a six, clumped over mid-wicket off Monty Panesar just as a reminder that he has one of the fastest Test hundreds in history to his name.

This innings, all 6½ hours of it, means that he has now batted for 13½ hours without being dismissed, longer even than his efforts at the start of the previous tour of England when it was well in excess of 12 hours and in his third innings before he was dismissed.

At Old Trafford he was dropped by Panesar when 20 and here Ian Bell was the culprit, missing a sharp chance at third slip off Hoggard, when he had nine, during the few hours of play on Saturday.

Top players rarely offer a third crack and he was in more danger from his own man Marlon Samuels, whose instinct for self-preservation almost saw him run out when 14 short of his hundred.

Chanderpaul is a remarkable player, so angular and knobbly in method that he should be lagged in foam rubber in the vicinity of young children lest they injure themselves.

That his experience of batting in Britain is limited to West Indies tours makes his capacity to adapt to the moving ball even more astounding, as is the switch from the pacy surface in Manchester to the sluggish Riverside seamer, but he watches with real intensity and plays impossibly late.

Exquisite timing, especially on the drive - none better than that threaded delicately through a cluster of off-side fielders shortly after reaching his century - puts to shame the bullish blunderbuss methods of lesser players.

In 11 matches away to England he has now scored 1,020 runs at an average of 78.46: from 15 matches Brian Lara's 1,268 runs, for the sake of comparison, came at an average of 48.76.

• Guardian Service