Shane Watson was the star as Australia dominated the first day of the fifth and final Ashes Test against England at the Oval Wednesday.
The Australian ended a near three-year century drought by smashing a brilliant 176 before falling late on in the day.
Steven Smith and nightwatchman Peter Siddle were at the crease at the close of play as Australia ended the day on 307 for four.
"Of course it's a big relief to be able to get a hundred, there's no doubt about that," Watson said.
"But for me the most important thing has been being able to bat for a long period of time.
"I've worked very hard, and had some very good people helping me out over the last six weeks to be able to get myself into a place where I can give myself a chance to bat for a long period like that.
"It was a really good wicket, for us to be able to win the toss on that wicket...if we can put in a really big total in that first innings, certainly it's going to give us a good chance to win this Test match.
Watson has been under pressure to perform and this century should ensure he retains his place for the reverse Ashes series in Australia later this year.
"In the end I knew I had to score runs," he said. I've been in the top six batting throughout this whole series and I certainly haven't scored the runs anywhere near what I wanted to score to help the team perform.
"I knew opening the batting it was going to be really important for me to be able to score runs and I wasn't able to do that.
"So, look, I knew I had to score runs and that's why I have been working so hard over the last month to be able to give myself the best chance to be able to put an innings together like I did today.
"Like you always do, you need things falling your way in an innings as well and I certainly had that today to be able to get me through certain stages of my innings.
"In the end, cricket is a performance-based game and if I'm not scoring runs or taking wickets I can't expect to get picked."
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