(Left)Dellmar:England batsmam Paul Collingwood hits out on the way to scoring 111 against the West Indies on the second day of the first Test match at Lord's, yesterday. and (Right)Reuters: England's Matthew Prior (left) celebrates with Ian Bell scoring a century on his Test debut against the West Indies during the second day of the first Test cricket match at Lord's in London yesterday.

LONDON (CMC):

West Indies bowled inconsistently, fielded sloppily and gifted three more hundreds to England's batsmen on the second day of the opening Test at Lord's.

When bad light stopped play 12 overs early to spare West Indies further punishment, England were 553 for five in their first innings.

Test newcomer Matt Prior wrote his name in the record books when he hammered an undefeated 126, Paul Collingwood rode his fortune to 111 and Ian Bell sedately gathered an unbeaten 109.

It was the first time that four England batsman have scored a century in an innings since 1938, after Alastair Cook was dismissed for 105 early in the day.

West Indies bowled much tighter than they did on the previous morning and England found scoring runs hard early on, after they continued from their bedtime total of 200 for three.

The limitations of the one-dimensional West Indies attack was cruelly exposed by the rapacious England batsmen as the day wore on.

Daren Powell has been the West Indies' most successful bowler with two wickets for 113 runs from 37 overs.

Dwayne Bravo, Corey Colly-more, and Jerome Taylor have taken one wicket apiece.

Downhill

Things started badly for the West Indies when they put down Collingwood on 31 and 36, and umpire Asad Rauf gave him the benefit of the doubt for a palpable lbw decision.

The England batsman rode his fortune and reached his landmark when he struck consecutive boundaries in Taylor's 18th over.

He drove the third ball through cover and edged the next to third man to bring up his 12th Test hundred.

Collingwood's luck ran out though, when he played back to a delivery from Bravo and was bowled off the inside edge. He and Bell added 144 for the seventh wicket.

Both Bell and Prior had entered the match with much to prove to the cynics and after they carried the hosts to tea at 372 for five, they justified the selectors' faith in an unfinished stand of 190 for the sixth wicket.

Prior grabbed his chance, when he played with enterprise and reached his milestone with a cut off his 105th ball from Chris Gayle to the third-man boundary for four. He became the 17th player and sixth wicketkeeper from England to score a Test hundred on debut.

Bell took 37 minutes to get his first run and though Prior dominated their stand, he too had his Kodak moment, when he turned Gayle into the leg-side for a single to complete his sixth Test hundred.

Before lunch, West Indies' fielding again let them down, as Collingwood and Bell started to dig in and led England to 280 for four at the interval.

The early pressure exerted got to Collingwood in the third over of the day. He had just driven Taylor through cover for his third boundary, when he essayed another drive and sliced the ball waist-high to gully, where Daren Ganga put him down.

West Indies appeared to have their man, when Collingwood - without addition to his score - offered no stroke to a ball moving back, but umpire Rauf answered a strident appeal in the negative, a decision TV replays suggested was incorrect.

This did not deter Taylor and he struck in his following over, when he removed Cook, when the left-handed opener was caught at square cover cutting a shortish delivery straight into the chest of Bravo. He and Collingwood had shared 57 for the fourth wicket.

Taylor soon turned from hero to villain, when Collingwood - on 36 - miscued a hook at a short, rising delivery from Collymore to long leg, where the fast bowler misjudged a skier.

West Indies were again taught a hard lesson about missing chances, as Collingwood steadied his nerves to set things up for the sedate Bell who dug in, and the enterprising Prior showed little mercy to the visitors' attack later in the day.

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