Cook carves up West Indies
published:
Friday | May 18, 2007
England's Alastair Cook celebrates scoring his century against the West Indies in front of partnership batsman Paul Collingwood during the first day of the first Test at Lord's yesterday. - Reuters
LONDON (CMC):
SHOWING OBVIOUS rust, the West Indies failed to make the most of ideal bowling conditions and Alastair Cook collected his fifth Test hundred to give England a strong hand before bad light stopped play on the rain-affected opening day of the opening Test yesterday at Lord's. Having not bowled a ball in a practice match simulation before the Test, the West Indies' bowlers lacked control and England's batsmen, led by Cook with an undefeated 102, exploited it to reach 200 for three when bad light stopped play 34 overs early. Cook struck his 162nd ball from Daren Powell through cover for two to reach his landmark before bad light sent the players off for the third and final time.
Cook was prepared to be mostly circumspect throughout his innings and only explored the range of his strokes when the West Indies bowlers strayed off line as they regularly did.
Powell was the most successful West Indies bowler with two wickets for 52 runs from 18 overs. After looking rusty during the morning period, the West Indies' bowlers showed more control in the afternoon period and Powell was rewarded with the scalps of stand-in skipper Andrew Strauss for 33 and Owais Shah for six.
Breakthrough
Powell made the breakthrough, when he had Strauss caught at backward point slicing a drive. He shared 88 for the first wicket with Cook.
Shah, playing in his second Test, was clearly full of nerves and Powell put him out of his misery when he had him caught at third slip.
Cook soon reached his 50 when he stroked his 76th delivery from Corey Collymore to long-on and ran four.
Kevin Pietersen had arrived and quickly got into stride when he whipped a delivery from Collymore through mid-wicket for the first of his four boundaries.
He and Cook took the sting out of the West Indies' attack with a stand of 59 for the third wicket before he was caught at cover for 26 driving a wide, half-volley from Collymore. It was the last success West Indies had before the close, after they had come back from a wicketless toil before lunch when England had reached 85 without loss.
Half-hour delay
Rain had delayed the start by a half-hour and Strauss and Cook got on top of the rusty West Indies attack to give England a solid base. The West Indies stuck with the same XI that was selected for the badly rain-affected, warm-up tour match against Somerset last weekend.
Andrew Flintoff failed a fitness test on his injured left ankle and missed out, as did James Anderson who was sent home leaving England with a front,line attack comprising Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Liam Plunkett and Monty Panesar.
The West Indies have not beaten England in a Test since they crushed them by an innings and 93 runs seven years ago at Birmingham. Since then, West Indies have lost 10 of their last 12 Tests against England and they have gone almost four years and 17 matches without a Test win on the road.
