England plunder runs against Windies

England exploited sloppy West Indies fielding and a monotonously one-dimensional pace attack on Friday to plunder 553 for five on the second day of the first Test at Lord's.

Paul Collingwood, dropped on 31 and 36, scored 111, Ian Bell reached 109 not out and Matt Prior became the first England wicketkeeper to score a century on debut with a sparkling 126.

They joined Alastair Cook (105) on the Lord's honours board to mark the first time since 1938 that four English batsman have passed three figures in the same innings.

A capacity crowd on the first sunny day in London for more than a week thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment but, after a testing opening hour, the West Indies were barely competitive.

West Indies have won only one Test abroad in the past 10 years, are now ranked eighth in the rankings ahead of only Bangladesh and Zimbabwe and have not played a Test this year.

They started the day promisingly enough after England resumed on 200 for three after Thursday's opening day was brought to a premature close through bad light.

Cook added only three to his overnight total of 102 before he was caught by Dwayne Bravo off Jerome Taylor, whose six overs on Thursday went for 35 runs.

Collingwood turned Taylor for a boundary then cover-drove another four off the back foot in the fast bowler's next over. He prodded forward to the next delivery and edged a straightforward chance which went in and out of Daren Ganga's hands in the gully.

One run later he padded up to a straight delivery but an impassioned appeal from the West Indies' team was rejected by umpire Asad Rauf.

The West Indies' misery was complete when Collingwood mistimed a hook in Corey Collymore's opening over but Taylor rushing in from deep mid-wicket misjudged the flight of the ball which sped over his shoulder to the boundary.

Ian Bell took 37 minutes to get off the mark but from then on it was England's day.

Collingwood punched the ball square of the wicket and worked it through his favourite areas on the on-side while Bell played fluently both sides of the pitch.

Bell reached his half-century with an edge through slips and Collingwood brought up his fourth Test century with successive fours before he was somewhat surprisingly bowled by Bravo after scoring 111 from 208 balls with 14 fours.

Prior was immediately into his stride with a four through mid-wicket and he fed hungrily on the West Indies' bowling, reduced at one stage to captain Ramnaresh Sarwan's gentle leg-spin and Chris Gayle's innocuous off-spinners.

He drove, pulled and cut with relish to race past Bell and complete his century from 105 balls with 16 fours. Bell, who was on 56 when Prior came to the crease, scored his sixth Test hundred from 180 balls with 11 fours.

Scorecard

England (1st innings): (overnight 200-3)
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: (b-8, lb-17, w-10, nb-2) 37
Total: (for five wickets, 142 overs) 553

Fall of wickets: 1-88, 2-103, 3-162, 4-219, 5-263.

Bowling: Powell 37-9-113-2 (6w), Taylor 24-4-114-1, Collymore 32-5-110-1 (2nb), Bravo 32-8-106-1 (1w), Gayle 10-0-48-0, Morton 1-0-4-0 (2w), Sarwan 6-0-33-0.

To bat: L.Plunkett, M.Hoggard, S.Harmison, M.Panesar

West Indies: C.Gayle, D.Ganga, D.Smith, R.Sarwan, S.Chanderpaul, R.Morton, D.Bravo, D.Ramdin, D.Powell, J.Taylor, C.Collymore.