England battle back to leave first Test finely poised
Pietersen was the stand out player for England on the first day in Jamaica
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Wednesday, 04, Feb 2009 11:38
England battled back from 94-4 at one stage to 236-5 at the end of the first day's play in the first Test against the West Indies in Jamaica.
The tourists were thankful to Kevin Pietersen who held the innings together during the afternoon session and fought hard to top score with 97.
Spinner Sulieman Benn was the pick of the West Indies bowlers on a turning pitch. He bowled 33 consecutive overs and picked up 2-64.
England struggled during the morning session and new captain Andrew Strauss looked particularly uncomfortable at the crease.
He edged the second ball of the match off Jerome Taylor but was lucky to see it drop short of slip. He then edged the same bowler to Xavier Marshall two overs later but was dropped.
Taylor finally got his man when the England skipper nicked one to the wicketkeeper for seven.
Alastair Cook (4) soon followed when he mistimed a pull shot and picked out Ramnaresh Sarwan at mid-on leaving England on 30-2.
Pietersen and Ian Bell both began their innings brightly as the Windies bowlers strayed on to the leg side but the introduction of spinner Benn slowed the scoring rate.
Just before lunch Chris Gayle entered the action and soon had Bell caught at slip just as he seemed to have got set.
Paul Collingwood and Pietersen tried to rebuild the innings after the interval but that only led to the run-rate dropping even further. The Durham man had battled his way to 16 before he was beaten by a Benn for a plum lbw.
After a brief rain delay Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff guided England to 132-4 at tea. The pair continued to grind out the runs before Pietersen attacked a Benn over with a vengeance.
The former England captain struck two fours and a six in successive balls as he moved onto 97. However, he came unstuck when he tried to bring up his century with another six but could only hit it straight up in the air and Dinesh Ramdin collected the catch behind the stumps.
Flintoff followed Pietersen's example and stuck to his task well finishing on 43 not out from 138 balls at the close of play. He was ably assisted by wicketkeeper Matt Prior (27 not out) as they shared a partnership of 56 before bad light stopped play.