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07-Mar-2009 08:30:00 GMT
West Indies v England, 5th Test, 1st day

Strauss Third Ton in Series Puts England on Top

Trinidad: The England skipper was undefeated on 139 his 17th Test hundred and shared century partnerships with Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood to guide England to a respectable 258 for two when stumps were drawn on the opening day at Queen's Park Oval.

Earlier, Strauss won the toss and chose to bat on another hard, true Caribbean pitch under sunny skies, and used the conditions to fashion another hundred to follow scores of 169, 14, 142, and 38 in his four previous innings.

That was during an ongoing 102-run stand with Paul Collingwood as the tourists toddled along at a sedate pace on a sluggish surface.

Both men provided scoring bursts to boost an otherwise sagging run rate, particularly Collingwood in the first half of his unbeaten half-century, which came from 108 balls shortly before the close.

All the same, it was a unsatisfactory day's play, on yet another dispiritingly unresponsive surface. West Indies pulled their punches from the moment they lost the toss and were asked to field first. Without the injured Jerome Taylor, and having dropped their senior spinner, Sulieman Benn, to accommodate an extra batsman, their principal weapons were the medium-pacer, Brendan Nash, who increased his career overs tally from 27 to 43, without adding to his wickets tally of 1, and the part-time spin pairing of Ryan Hinds and Chris Gayle.

Brief Score: England 258/2 (Strauss 139*, Collingwood 54*) v West Indies.


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