England's Ollie Pope has ridden his luck to make 121 and lead the hosts to a rapid 416 all out on the first day of the second Test against West Indies at Trent Bridge.
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Dropped on 46 and 54, Pope compiled his sixth test century as the hosts built on Ben Duckett's sparkling 71 in the morning to establish a strong position on Thursday.
"I'm happy with the way I went about my stuff and obviously there was a nice couple of drops, which always helps," Pope said.
"No one means to drop them but cricket goes in swings and roundabouts. The luck wasn't with me in my county stint. I wouldn't say I had doubts but sometimes you think, 'Why's everyone else in the country scoring runs in county cricket but England's No.3 isn't going out and averaging 50 this summer?'
"That's just cricket for you, you want to go and score a hundred every day but sometimes it doesn't work that way."
England lost Zak Crawley to the third ball of the match, caught at slip by Alick Athanaze off Alzarri Joseph, but Duckett hit four boundaries in a row to get started and sped to his fifty off 32 balls.
The left-hander looked well on course for his fourth test century until he pushed at a full ball from Shamar Joseph and nicked a low catch to Jason Holder at second slip.
Pope, dropped by Athanaze at gully just before lunch, should also have been caught by Holder after the interval before Joe Root, on 14, top-edged an attempted pull off Jayden Seales and skied a catch to Alzarri Joseph.
Harry Brook moved briskly to 36, including a six over backward point, before he edged a paddle sweep off spinner Kevin Sinclair to Kirk McKenzie at short leg and the bowler celebrated with a backward somersault.
That's my trademark celebration, from where I come from," said the Guyanese spinner. "Whenever I get a wicket, I just do it for everyone from there.
"It all started at the tender age of eight, practising it over and over in the back garden. I know what I'm doing, I've perfected it over the years."
Pope grew in confidence, moving to his hundred with a crisp four through square leg before removing his helmet and raising his bat to the crowd.
Pope edged a catch to Kavem Hodge off Alzarri Joseph but captain Ben Stokes made a welcome return to form with the bat, hitting eight fours in his 69 before being caught off part-time spinner Hodge.
Jamie Smith (36) and Chris Woakes (37) chipped in down the order and England will feel confident of taking advantage of a positive start to move 2-0 up in the series following their innings victory in the first test at Lord's.
Australian Associated Press
