CRICKET:England cracked on in the Lord's sunshine yesterday, blistering past 500 and putting the first Test beyond the reach of a West Indies side as undercooked as a fairground burger.
Ramnaresh Sarwan's side were diligent and enthusiastic throughout a trying day, but fallibility in catching the ball cost them dearly as Paul Collingwood twice survived relatively simple chances in the early stages of his innings (and was the beneficiary of an astounding misjudgment by umpire Asad Rauf) to register his fourth Test century.
Later, as the bowling tired - Sarwan is a hard taskmaster - and Ian Bell moved methodically and undemonstratively towards a hundred of his own, Matt Prior, in his debut innings, came in and plundered in precisely the manner that England's new coach, Peter Moores, would have anticipated when he nailed Prior's credentials as wicketkeeper-batsman to the mast. He reached a remarkable hundred at almost a run a ball; no keeper has made more on debut for England. A contract for the Advanced Hair Studio surely awaits, although this may represent its biggest challenge yet.
There was some shoddy work with the second new ball, matching that with the first. Do bowlers lose a silicon chip when presented with this in the way that new golf clubs seem to develop a fierce hook or slice once money changes hands?
Yet the West Indies pace attack, stereotyped as it is, was persistent, operating to a strict plan in the channel wide of off stump and finding movement in the air throughout the day, providing the ball was pitched up. For effort alone, Daren Powell and particularly Jerome Taylor, so ineffective at the start of the match that he was ignored for most of the first day, deserved better than they got.
Given the back-up that the bowlers received from the ground fielding, the catching was deplorable. Collingwood, having played as well as anyone the previous evening for his 21, began yesterday as if form had deserted him. When 31, having just eased Taylor to the extra-cover boundary, he drove vigorously at an away swinger and sliced it head high to gulley, where Darren Ganga, perhaps catching the ball in his own mind before it had reached him, made such a botch of it that Runako Morton, an effervescent presence at second slip, prostrated himself and beat his fists on the turf.
One run later, in Taylor's next over, Collingwood, having observed away swing only, opted to pad up to a clever double-bluff inswinger, the ball crashing into his front pad. It was unarguably lbw, a scandalous decision by Rauf at this level. Dickie Bird was a noted advocate of not out, but even he would have sent Collingwood packing.
There was one further chance offered by Collingwood, the last until Dwayne Bravo trimmed his off bail shortly before tea, and it came when, having reached 36, he hooked Cory Collymore, in his first over from the Pavilion End, high to long leg where Taylor misjudged the flight of the ball and spilled what should have been a straightforward catch.
Thereafter Collingwood was faultless, neat off his legs as ever, taking toll of the second new ball when he and Bell tucked in for a while, and reaching his century on the angle to third man. In all, he batted for a shade more than 4½ hours, hitting 14 fours and adding 144 for the fifth wicket with Bell.
Meanwhile, Bell was playing with understated skill. This cannot have been an easy innings to play, the implication of his move down the order to number six being that it was he whose place was under pressure from the indulgence in, and impending return of, Michael Vaughan.
Bell was circumspect at the start, taking 37 minutes to get off the mark, but prospered thereafter, reaching his half-century during the new-ball shabbiness. Only after Collingwood was flummoxed by the movement down the slope did he retreat into his shell, but the advent of Prior and the manner in which the new player seized control of the situation removed the imperative for him to score more freely.
Long-term followers of England will recognise some of the perkiness and flourish of Alec Stewart in the brisk approach Prior brought to his batting yesterday, even if he has not quite mastered the art of the bat twirl. But he punches his weight off the back foot, pulls willingly and drives with some panache.
Once, during a brief spell of spin, he pulled Chris Gayle ferociously back past the bowler. By the time he reached 96 he had overtaken Bell, who had a 56-run start, reaching his century by laying back and cutting Gayle square to the Tavern boundary. It had taken only 105 balls and contained 16 fours.
Bell's own hundred, the sixth of his career and second at Lord's, followed shortly after, from a more sedate 184 balls. Not since Trent Bridge in 1938 have four England batsmen made centuries in the same innings.
Guardian Service
England First Innings
A Strauss c Smith b Powell 33
A Cook c Bravo b Taylor 105
O Shah c Smith b Powell 6
K Pietersen c Smith b Collymore 26
P Collingwood b Bravo 111
I Bell not out 109
M Prior not out 126
Extras (b8 lb17 w9 nb3) 37
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Total (5 wkts, 142 overs) ... 553
Fall of wickets: 1-88, 2-103, 3-162, 4-219, 5-363.
To bat: L Plunkett, S Harmison, M Hoggard, M Panesar.
Bowling: Powell 37-9-113-2, Taylor 24-4-114-1, Collymore 32-5-110-1, Bravo 32-8-106-1, Gayle 10-0-48-0, Morton 1-0-4-0, Sarwan 6-0-33-0.
