Marnus Labuschagne has admitted his third-straight century didn't come easy, battling through the first day of the Adelaide pink-ball Test against West Indies.
After playing a starring role in Perth with scores of 204 and 104*, the world's best batsman backed it up with an unbeaten 120* heading into the second day.
Labuschagne faced 235 balls against the Windies as he and Usman Khawaja built a strong foundation, before hometown hero Travis Head blasted the visitors for a brilliant century.
Speaking to the media after the day's play, Labuschagne spoke openly and honestly about his struggles against the pink rock and the discipline he was forced to show in the early parts of the day.
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“The pink ball is a bit strange – you never feel like you’re really in," he said.
"Last week, I felt like at the WACA [Optus Stadium] you can score freely and hit the ball on the up. I feel like the pink ball can be a bit two-paced and some hold in the wicket.
"My discipline was very good today, I stuck to my process really well. In terms of being fluid and feeling like I’m smacking the ball, it didn’t really feel like that today.
“I don’t pick the ball up as well as early. Sometimes people are like ‘you are being real patient’ but it’s just because when you’re not seeing the ball beautifully – it’s very hard to pick up balls to cut or pull.
"You almost just narrow it down and just watch the stumps and play down here until that comes. As you play more and you get the rhythm of the wicket and the bounce – at Optus Stadium, you can pick that up earlier.
“We don’t train with the pink ball and we don’t play with the pink ball in Shield cricket anymore. We just rock up with a three-day gap and play a pink-ball game. It could be that as well, but I definitely feel like the ball itself is different.
"The way they make the leather with the red Kooka – they soak the leather, they dye the leather – with the pink Kooka, they actually paint it…like a white cricket ball, and that reacts differently off the surface."
Following the departure of Khawaja and Steve Smith in quick succession, Labuschagne and Head have since put on 201 runs between them, but it was the left-hander who has been dominating the sub-par Windies attack.
Head blasted 12 boundaries in his 139 balls thus far, and just a week after narrowly missing out on a century at Optus Stadium, he is glad he could make amends on his home deck.
"After last week and not getting over the line – it was a bloody long week thinking about it," he told cricket.com.au.
"It was nice first innings back to get the monkey off the back as such...one run means a great deal in cricket.
"My oath [I thought about it]. It's amazing how things pan out and what cricket does to you. It's a stats-based game and when you work as hard as we do, when it comes as close as that, it was tough to take.
"It's nice when it comes around a few days later. To get through that is nice and now I don't have to worry about it anymore."
The pair will resume on day two with another mammoth first innings total awaiting them, following a dominant 164-run victory in the series opener.
Labuschagne isn't getting too carried away, but admits he already has one eye on the upcoming series against South Africa and India.
“Having that focus and knowing there is a lot of cricket on, you want to make sure your game is in order and thinking ahead to how South Africa and how the West Indies are going to bowl to me," he said.
"I'm making sure I take some of the learnings from Galle against Sri Lanka and then how I’m going to play in India.
"You are always thinking forward about how guys are going to attack you and how you are going to play and adapt your game."