'It's My Best Innings. I Hope I Can Kick on From Here'

The career-defining knock is one of cricket's great clichés but few were arguing last night when Ian Bell deemed his 199 to be his "best innings for England so far". While others have wrung their hands over his apparent preference for style over substance, Bell was honest enough to accept the criticism. "Getting a big hundred is something in my career I possibly haven't done enough of," he said. "The best players in the world go on and get them so hopefully I can kick on from here."

In a nod to the impending return of Andrew Flintoff, Bell said: "You understand there are some good players that aren't playing for England at the minute. You have to keep churning out the runs to keep your place. That's another reason I wanted to play for Warwickshire last week [he made 215 against Gloucestershire]. I wanted to be in the best possible form for this series. To play with that fluency all the way is something I won't forget."

Bell admitted he was in two minds over what to do with the delivery he ended up chipping back to Paul Harris one run short of a fourth first-class double-hundred but it was a rare blemish.

"If I knew I was going to get 199 coming into this game, I'd have snapped your hand off," Bell said when asked if he felt disappointed or happy. "But a double hundred at Lord's would have felt really special."

The South Africa coach, Mickey Arthur, who had suggested before the match that the battle between Bell and Paul Collingwood may be to his side's benefit, said: "Ian Bell showed his class. We discussed at length how to bowl to him and we gave him four half-volleys to kick-start his innings. That wasn't part of the script. Hats off to him. He came into the game under pressure and he delivered."

Arthur admitted the performance of his bowlers had been "a hell of a disappointment". He added: "We came here full of expectation and we haven't delivered. We're aware of it. We didn't assess conditions correctly up front, didn't get our lines and lengths right and bowled both sides of the wicket. We were like tourists around the ground on the first day. The one positive is that England haven't seen the best of us yet."