England's spinner Monty Panesar (second left), wicketkeeper Matt Prior (right) and Paul Collingwood celebrate the dismissal of West Indies batsman Runako Morton (second right) after trapping him lbw during the third day's play of the first Test at Lord's on Saturday. Panesar finished with six for 120. - dellmar LONDON (Reuters):
Monty Panesar captured six for 129 and Kevin Pietersen struck a swashbuckling 109 yesterday to give England a platform to press for victory on the final day of the first Test against West Indies at Lord's.
After dismissing West Indies for 437 in reply to their 553 for five declared, England declared their second innings closed at 284 for eight to set West Indies 401 to win.
At the close of the fourth day, the tourists were seven without loss in their second innings.
Panesar became the first spinner in Testhistory to dismiss five batsmen lbw as he recorded his fourth five-wicket haul in his short Test career.
Pietersen then consolidated England's advantage in the evening session by unfurling a series of imperious drives to reach his seventh Test century from 122 balls. His second 50 took only 39 balls before he was out lbw trying to reverse sweep Chris Gayle.
Lbw awards
Panesar's last five wickets were all lbw awarded by Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf after he bowled Devon Smith with his opening delivery of the match on Saturday.
Yesterday, he dismissed Shivnarine Chanderpaul for 74 with the fourth delivery of his first over and he wrapped up the innings by hitting Corey Collymore (1) in front of the stumps.
Steve Harmison, who conceded 95 runs on Saturday without taking a wicket, dismissed Jerome Taylor caught at point for 21.
Harmison's match so far, after his disappointing Ashes series in Australia, was summed up when number nine Daren Powell stepped to leg to drive him for four then played a classical cover drive to the boundary from the next delivery on his way to his highest Test score of 36 not out.
EXCELLENT COLLYMORE
Collymore, taking the new ball instead of Taylor, gave an excellent exhibition of seam bowling, dismissing acting captain Andrew Strauss (24), Owais Shah (4) and Alastair Cook, who followed up his first innings with 105 with 64.
Strauss was given a life on 10 when wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin failed to grasp a hard chance from an inside edge off Powell. He fell to a fine ball from Collymore which drew him forward and flew off the edge to Runako Morton at second slip.
Shah, who scored only six in the first innings after winning his second cap as a substitute for the injured Andrew Flintoff, was caught down the leg side by Ramdin and Cook was also caught by Ramdin off an outside edge. Cook's fourth Test half-century had taken 125 balls and contained eight fours.
Cook's composed and intelligent innings was over-shadowed by Pietersen who injectedoverdue urgency into the batting.
Cover drives
Pietersen moved down the pitch to drill Collymore over his head. In the over which accounted for Cook he played a majestic cover drive to the boundary, pulled another four and ran another down to third man.
He took an all-ran four off Gayle and drove Daywne Bravo and Powell for savage fours.
Paul Collingwood kept him company with a lofted four over mid-on and a bottom-handed drive through extra cover plus some swift running between the wickets. He received a life on 29 when Powell failed to hold on to a catch at long leg off Bravo while Pietersen had a reprieve on 94 when a faint edge off Gayle down the leg side hit Ramdin on the pads.
Collingwood was finally out for 34, caught by Morton at deep backward square leg from another lofted hook.
Matt Prior, the only England wicketkeeper to score a century in his first Test with his 126 not out in the first innings, struck two fours and two consecutive sixes to race to 21 from nine balls before he was caught off Gayle.
