England put their shirt on redeemed star

Ballance pulled his shirt off as he and team-mates partied in a Nottingham nightclub after the drawn first match at Trent Bridge.

It took three days for him to realise the full consequences of his mistake, when camera-phone pictures of him stripped to the waist and apparently swaying were published in the national press.

England, however, decided there was no need to punish Ballance – and he repaid them with a crucial 110 as England replied to 295 all out with 219-6.

There was barely a false shot in the middle by Ballance, but he does regret letting his guard slip on Sunday.

“I didn’t see it coming and it was a bit embarrassing,” said the 24-year-old.

“I was probably a bit naive, but I didn’t really break any rules. I was just having fun after a Test match.

“But I’ll learn from that and probably won’t do it again.”

He will swap a Lord’s century, of course, for a few drinks in Nottingham any time of the day or week.

“Just to score a hundred at Lord’s is amazing really,” added the Yorkshire batsman.

“It’s been an interesting week. I didn’t really expect it, but it’s nice to score some runs and put us back in a decent position.

“It’s a great feeling ... I think even better after what happened.”

“I felt a bit of pressure turning up on day one, with what happened,” he added.

“But everyone around me was very supportive – the coaches, all the players, my family were backing me and saying ‘mistakes happen; you’ve got to learn from it, and move on’.

“Once they’d said that, luckily I took a catch in the third or fourth over and that calmed me down a lot.”