It's hard to think of two more contrasting centuries than the one Mark Butcher made at Lord's today, and his last Test hundred before that. Last August, Butcher became a national hero when he smashed 173 not out against Australia; here he and England had everything to lose, and little to gain. Against Australia he careered to a hundred in 142 balls; here he took more than twice that (291 balls). It wasn't especially pretty but, until he ran himself out, Butcher produced a thoroughly professional defensive display, which was just what England required. He did not get flustered while playing out a potentially asphyxiating 228 dot balls (77% of his innings) and he was in control of over 90% of his strokes (266 out of 295).

The main feature of Butcher's innings was that he scored almost 80% of his runs (82 out of 105) off the back foot, and only 12% off the front foot. This is a remarkable ratio for a man whose trademark shot, the cover drive, is played off the front foot.

It's not as if Sri Lanka peppered Butcher with short stuff either: he played 135 deliveries off the back foot (when his scoring rate was equivalent to 3.64 runs per over), 109 off the front foot (when he scored at just 0.66 per over). Against Chaminda Vaas, Butcher scored 31 off 42 deliveries off the back foot, but no runs at all off the 27 deliveries he played forward to.

Butcher was more inclined to play good-length deliveries off the back foot, especially off Sri Lanka's trio of left-arm seamers, and his most profitable scoring area was through midwicket. This yielded 30 runs, mostly from whips off middle stump. Butcher scored 35 runs off 42 balls pitched on middle, as against 64 from 217 off anything pitching further across to the off side.

Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com.

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