| Scorecard: | West Indies v England |
| Player: | AN Cook, AJ Strauss |
| Event: | England in West Indies 2008/09 |
Andrew Strauss led from the front once again with a superb 142, and Alastair Cook produced his highest Test score for 14 months, as England dominated the opening exchanges of the fourth Test in Barbados. The pair batted straight through the first two sessions in a partnership of 229, an English record for the first wicket against West Indies, but the hosts still revived their hopes of staying in touch in the game by claiming three wickets for 80 in a tidy final session.
By the close, however, England had negotiated six overs of the new ball to reach an imposing 301 for 3 after winning the toss. For the second Test running, the kingpin of England's innings was the new captain, Strauss, whose 142 was once again set the tone for the English team to dictate the further proceedings. He capitalised on a true surface to crack 17 fours and a six in a 210-ball innings that confirmed he has found himself a rich vein of form. Strauss cashed in on every slight error in width or length, but retained the discipline to leave comfortably alone outside off stump. His driving was particularly imperious - anything remotely full was met with a cool stride and a rapier flash of the blade. He did offer one genuine chance, on 58, when Chris Gayle at first slip fluffed a regulation opportunity off the luckless Fidel Edwards, but all in all it was a performance of the highest quality.
Strauss cashed in with 11 fours in the morning session, including four in consecutive deliveries from Edwards and Benn, whom he smashed through the covers to reach his fifty from 71 deliveries. And midway through the afternoon session, his century was brought up with a dismissive slap for six over midwicket, again off Benn. Strauss might have banked on adding many more, had it not been for arguably the best ball of the series, a perfect late-swinging yorker with the which brought Strauss to his knees.
Cook took longer than his captain to settle and to add to his comfort Powell fed him a brace of woeful short balls to get his feet moving properly, the first of which Cook did well to reach, before Benn was belted over midwicket for only his second six in international cricket. By tea he was 16 runs shy of his eighth Test century but on 86, he edged at a catchable height straight through the gap between keeper and first slip, but it was his addiction to the hook shot that proved his downfall. An earlier miscue had flown safely down to third man, and a second swish had fallen tantalisingly short of square. At the third time of asking, however, he ran out of fortune, as Ryan Hinds dived athletically at midwicket to give Taylor his first breakthrough of the day.
Cook was gone for 94, and suddenly England, at 241 for 2, had two new batsmen at the crease. Pietersen, his feet stuck in the crease, took his time to get going as West Indies teased him with the lollipop offerings of Brendan Nash, but it was the man at the other end, Owais Shah, who succumbed in a tentative hour before the new ball was called for. Benn, extracting some purchase from the wicket, found a bit of extra bounce outside off stump, and Devon Smith claimed a chest-high catch at first slip to end a tortuous innings of 7 from 47 balls. West Indies' grand finale to the day could have gone even better had Taylor, charging in from square leg, clung onto the spiralling top-edge from Pietersen, as Edwards worked up speed in the lengthening shadows.