England Test century one of the best days of my life - Sibley

Dom Sibley delighted in the aftermath of a maiden Test century, helping England fasten their grip on the Cape Town match.

Published : Jan 07, 2020 00:55 IST , Cape Town

Dom Sibley scores his first Test century
Dom Sibley scores his first Test century
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Dom Sibley scores his first Test century

England batsman Dom Sibley revelled in "one of the best days of my life" after making a maiden Test century on day four of the Cape Town contest against South Africa.

Sibley put England in a commanding position against the Proteas with an unbeaten 133 as the tourist declared on 391-8, setting the home team a target of 438.

The Warwickshire man was playing just his fourth Test as he steered England towards victory, with the Proteas still 312 runs shy of victory heading into day five.

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"It's probably one of the best days of my life," Sibley told Sky Sports . "I was a bit nervy on 95 when I nicked one off [Kagiso] Rabada and luckily turned around and saw it race away to the rope.

"It was nice to get one away off [Keshav] Maharaj and a nice big celebration."

The opener is now hopeful he can add further "addictive" tons in the remainder of the series, with England eight wickets away from winning the Test and drawing level in South Africa.

"Your first one makes you feel like you can do it here - especially against a really good attack," he said. "I just want to keep doing it, to be honest.

"That feeling was pretty addictive today, with the way the crowd was. It doesn't mean I'm going to rest on my laurels. I'll train hard and hopefully have another couple in this series."

Sibley was feeling the pressure overnight as he sat on 85, but Ben Stokes, a new partner on Monday morning, was in destructive mood - making 72 off 47 - to aid his team-mate.

The centurion added at a news conference: "I slept terribly, to be honest. I was up at like 2am, watching TV, thinking about the 15 runs.

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"It feels amazing right now. I'm just glad that I got over the line.

"I think [Stokes] took the pressure off me, made it really easy to just go at my own tempo. He kept saying to me, 'Don't change what you're doing, just play the way you play'.

"So when he was whacking it everywhere and I was nurdling it around and playing and missing and stuff, it was nice that, at the other end, he was doing the scoring. I could just go about it in my own way."

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