COOLIDGE, Antigua (CMC):

His majestic knock was not enough to take St Maarten home against St Vincent and the Grenadines, but John Eugene is still elated over scoring the first century of the Stanford Twenty20 tournament.

"I am happy that I am the one who did it. I think we gave away a good 30, 40 runs and that cost us," explained Eugene, the former Windwards Islands batsman who played a single match for West Indies 'A' against England 'A' in 1992. "I just feel proud of myself to score 100 in Twenty20 cricket. I have been playing for a long while and I feel good about this achievement. This is the first Twenty20 century and I hope it won't be the last."

Replying to St. Vincent and the Grenadines' 168 for four on Friday night here, St Maarten ended their exciting battle on 158 for six with Eugene finishing on an even, unbeaten century.

Required to score over eight runs an over for victory, St Maarten found themselves in serious trouble at 50 for one after 10 overs. At this stage, the run rate was 11.9, which continued to climb and by the end of the 16th over, they required 18 runs an over.

Blasted away

Eugene, however, blasted seven fours and six sixes, taking 20 runs off the 17th over, 24 of the 25 scored in the 18th over, but came up short in the end.

"We started slow, but you have to assess things first. However, with the run rate going up 17 and 18 runs, we could not just give up. We had to give it a fight," said Eugene. "I wanted to try to hit clean, hit boundaries and see how close we can get. I was watching the games back home and I realised that once you could hit the ball straight, there was always the possibility of getting runs, and that was my aim - just to hit straight."

With the feat, Eugene joined Chris Gayle as only the second West Indian batsman to achieve three figures in this form of the game at a regional or international competition.

"I am glad to join the company of Chris Gayle, the second West Indian to score a Twenty20 hundred," the 37-year-old said.

"I am proud of myself. I just want to give thanks to God for giving me health and strength. At my age now, I scored a hundred in Twenty20. That says a lot for my health."

He collected the US$25,000 Man-of-the-Match award for his exploits.

The 22-year-old, who has been a revelation for Sunderland in the English Premiership this season, is one of several overseas-based players returning to the squad following their dispute with the national federation over World Cup monies.