NASSER Hussain repaid a perceived debt to the dressing room by ending his long wait for a century and spearheading a spirited England response to Sri Lanka's explosive start to the second Test.

Since the start of last summer, England have enjoyed incredible success under Hussain's captaincy with series wins over Zimbabwe, West Indies and most memorably Pakistan just before Christmas.

Yet throughout those celebrations, Hussain was conscious that he had contributed little in the way of runs after scoring only one half-century in his last 21 Test innings, stretching back to the unbeaten 146 against South Africa in Durban 14 months ago.

Few would dare question Hussain's role in England's revival, providing an example on and off the pitch and giving his side a resilience they lacked before his appointment in the summer of 1999.

Throughout that period he has felt uneasy about his inability to lead from the front, but yesterday answered those doubts in emphatic style with a superb 109 to both keep his side in contention for the match and the series.

''I felt I owed the boys a hundred and I was desperate to get it for them,'' explained Hussain, who celebrated the landmark by waving his bat towards the dressing room.

''They've done a lot for me recently and I needed to respond to them. It was nice to see them all up in the air when I scored the hundred I was pointing at them because I wanted to give them something back.

''It's been a difficult year and it's been a really good year. My team has stuck by me and every time I've asked them to do it for me they do it and that's why today I turned to them and felt I owed them that.

''I don't want to be a freeloader. I'm quite passionate about my cricket and it's nice to look in that dressing room today and say 'there you go boys.'''

His efforts in scoring his ninth Test century, which spanned 312 minutes at the crease, helped England recover from a perilous 37 for two to reach 249 for five at the close of the second day in reply to Sri Lanka's 297.

But it was not just the amount of runs he scored which was so impressive, but the manner of his performance, shrugging off an early loose shot outside off-stump to dominate Sri Lanka's dangerous spin attack with three sixes and 12 fours in his innings.

Having watched Sri Lanka plunder 47 boundaries on the opening day, Hussain was galvanised into following suit and with old friend Graham Thorpe for company, the pair hammered 78 in only 17 overs immediately after the loss of Michael Atherton and Marcus Trescothick inside the opening 15 overs.

Summoning up the spirit of Edgbaston 1997, when they memorably forged a 288-run stand to help beat Australia by nine wickets, they ran Sri Lanka ragged by rotating the strike and using quick singles as a method to frustrate their opponents to distraction.

After a year of dubious dismissals, Hussain was also fortunate that lady luck was smiling on him in the form of Sri Lankan umpire BC Cooray, who twice wrongly ruled against a pad-bat appeal off Muttiah Muralitharan when he had reached 53 and 62.

Those reprieves helped extend Hussain's partnership with Thorpe to 167 in 55 overs until rival captain Sanath Jayasuriya, curiously limiting himself to only two overs before tea, ended the Surrey left-hander's defiant innings of 59 when he was caught at short leg.

His demise left Hussain needing a further 14 to reach three figures, a landmark he finally achieved to the acclaim of both his team-mates and a healthy crowd containing plenty of England supporters.

''It's only one innings so I'm not going to say that everything is solved,'' stressed Hussain.

''I felt I'd been batting fine and the technique was fine, but I was going in and playing a bad shot, or I was triggered, or something happened to push you back to square one."

Hussain was given one last reprieve, put down by Jayawardene at slip off Jayasuriya on 109 and three overs later Muralitharan finally got his revenge by bowling England's captain.

But the very fact that it took Muralitharan 30 overs to take his first wicket of the match will have been a big psychological bonus for England, although he reminded them of his capabilities before the close by ending Graeme Hick's misery.

Hick arrived at the crease after failing to reach double figures in either innings in the opening Test.