Showing obvious rust, West Indies failed to make the most of ideal bowling conditions, and Alastair Cook collected his fifth Test hundred to give England a strong hand before bad light stopped play on the rain-affected opening day of the opening Test yesterday at Lord's. Having not bowled a ball in a practice match simulation prior to the Test, the West Indies' bowlers lacked control, and England's batsmen, led by Cook with an undefeated 102, exploited it to reach 200 for three when bad light stopped play 34 overs early. Cook struck his 162nd ball from Daren Powell through cover for two to reach his landmark before bad light sent the players off for the third and final time. Cook was prepared to be mostly circumspect throughout his innings, and only explored the range of his strokes when the West Indies bowlers strayed off line as they regularly did. Powell was the most successful West Indies bowler with two wickets for 52 runs from 18 overs. After looking rusty during the morning period, the West Indies' bowlers showed more control in the afternoon period, and Powell was rewarded with the scalps of Andrew Strauss for 33 and Owais Shah for six. Powell made the breakthrough, when he had Andrew Strauss caught at backward point slicing a drive. The interim England captain shared 88 for the first wicket with Cook. Owais Shah, playing in his second Test, was clearly full of nerves and Powell put him out of his misery, when he had him caught at third slip. Cook soon reached his 50, when he stroked his 76th delivery from Corey Collymore to long-on and ran four. Kevin Pietersen had arrived and quickly got into stride, when he whipped a delivery from Collymore through mid-wicket for the first of his four boundaries. He and Cook took the sting out of the West Indies' attack with a stand of 59 for the third wicket before he was caught at cover for 26 driving a wide, half-volley from Collymore. It was the last success West Indies had before the close, after they had come back from a wicketless toil before lunch, when England had reached 85 without loss. Rain had delayed the start by half-hour, and Strauss and Cook got on top of the rusty West Indies attack to give England a solid base. None of the West Indies' bowlers could find a consistent line, and the England opening batsmen prospered. Strauss looked particularly comfortable off the back foot - striking successive boundaries off Jerome Taylor through the leg - while also driving down the ground with authority. Cook was similarly assured with a couple rasping strokes through the off-side and was a delight to watch. Twice just before the interval, Collymore caused Andrew Strauss some anxious moments when he found the left-hander's outside edge, both falling short of the slips. West Indies stuck with the same 11 that was selected for the badly rain-affected, warm-up tour match against Somerset last weekend. It meant Sylvester Joseph and Fidel Edwards will have to wait a little longer to resume their Test careers, and Ravi Rampaul and Daren Sammy to start theirs. Andrew Flintoff failed a fitness test on his injured left ankle and missed out, as James Anderson was sent home leaving England with a frontline attack comprising Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Liam Plunkett, and Monty Panesar. West Indies have not beaten England in a Test since they crushed them by an innings and 93 runs seven years ago at Birmingham. Since then, West Indies have lost 10 of their last 12 Tests against England, and they have gone almost four years and 17 matches without a Test win on the road. Scoreboard England 1st Innings A Strauss c Smith b Powell 33 A Cook not out 102 O Shah c Smith b Powell 6 K Pietersen c Smith b Collymore 26 P Collingwood not out 21 Extras (lb10, w1, nb1) 12 Total (3 wkts, 56 overs, 249 mins) 200 Fall of wickets: 1-88 (Strauss), 2-103 (Shah), 3-162 (Pietersen) To bat: I Bell, M Prior, L Plunkett, M Hoggard, S Harmison, M Panesar Bowling: Powell 18-4-52-2; Taylor 6-0-35-0; Collymore 19-4-60-1 (1nb); Bravo 13-4-43-0 (1w) West Indies: Chris Gayle, Daren Ganga, Devon Smith, Ramnaresh Sarwan (capt), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Runako Morton, Dwayne Bravo, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Daren Powell, Jerome Taylor, Corey Collymore Toss: West Indies Umpires: Rudi Koertzen (RSA) and Asad Rauf (PAK) TV umpire: Nigel Llong (ENG) Match referee: Alan Hurst (AUS) Reprinted from jamaiacaobserver.com