Samuels... first Test century. - File KINGSTON, Jamaica CMC :
LATEST WEST Indies centurion Marlon Samuels said that he could not sleep the night before start of play on the fourth day of the third Test against India at Kolkata.
The 21-year-old Jamaican, who scored his maiden Test hundred, 104, at the famed Eden Gardens ground in the former Calcutta, said in a radio interview that it was the most nerve-racking time of his cricket career.
"I just could not sleep the night before, knowing that I was on 89 and needed to get my first Test century," Samuels told interviewer Maurice Foster on the KLAS radio programme Scoreboard on Monday.
"Most of the pressure I felt was the night before I got the century. I spent the night wondering what it would be like to score my first century. Based on how I was thinking, I knew that it was definitely the right time.
"When I resumed batting the morning, I was not nervous getting into the 90s.
I told myself that I had made a lot of half centuries and got out, and insisted that I would not get out this time. That allowed me to relax more as I also told myself when I started batting the (fourth) morning that I would forget that I was on 89 and that I was just beginning my innings," Samuels said.
The elegant right-hander said that he would have preferred to score his first century before his home crowd at Sabina Park, but remained hopeful that he would get other opportunities to do so.
He was disappointed when he got out just after attaining the milestone, but put it down to an error on his part.
"I got caught in the crease when I got out and it was very disappointing because I was looking to score 150. I always fancied myself as a good player of spin and I knew that I would do well against the Indian spinners," added Samuels, who did not play in the previous two Tests.
Now almost fully recovered from knee surgery earlier this year, Samuels said that he was not 100 per cent fit, but was working on it.
"I am still spending a lot of time in the gym," he said.
