By Tony Becca, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
England opening batsman Andrew Strauss (right) celebrates with teammate Robert Key (left) after Key scored his maiden Test century during the first day of the first Test against the West Indies at Lord's yesterday.
LONDON:
THE TEST series between the West Indies and England got under way at Lord's in St. John's Woods yesterday and although it may be too early to say, on the evidence so far it could be a long and punishing if not hot summer for the Windies.
When bad light stopped play on the opening day of the first match in the four-Test series, England, watched by a full house that included Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness The Duke of Eding-burgh, were 391 for two off 84.3 overs with Andrew Strauss stroking an impressive 137, Robert Key on a career best 167 and captain Michael Vaughan on 36 and looking good.
On top of that, Graham Thorpe, Andrew Flintoff and Geraint Jones are still to bat on a pitch that is perfect for batting and against an attack that has been nothing but ordinary and which, at the end of the day, appears ripe for plucking.
In cricket, as in life, there are two kinds of people - those who learn from their mistakes and those who do not and yesterday Lara proved, as a captain, that he belongs to the latter group.
SUFFERING
After winning the toss in the fourth and final Test at Centurion a few months ago, after sending South Africa to bat and suffering while the home team eased to 301 without loss before finishing the day on 302 for one off 67.1 overs, Lara won the toss yesterday, and with the weather as good as could be expected in the circumstances, with specks of blue skies above and the sun playing hide and seek, sent England to bat and suffered again.
Strauss and Key preened themselves during a partnership of 291 off 60 overs before, with the score on 320 for one in the 66th over, Strauss went on to the back foot, attempted to drive offspinner Omari Banks through the offside, and handed wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs his 200th Test catch.
In erasing the previous West Indies versus England second-wicket record of 285 set by Gordon Greenidge and Larry Gomes in their match-winning performance at Lord's in 1984, Strauss, the 27-year-old Middlesex left-hander who was born in Johannesburg to English parents and who lived in Melbourne, Australia, before arriving in England at age six, and Key, the 24-year-old right-hander who was born and bred in Kent, treated the West Indies bowlers with little or no respect and entertained the gathering with some magnificent strokes and a flood of boundaries.
In ticking off his second century in only his fourth Test match, Strauss, who scored 112 and 83 run out against New Zealand at Lord's in his first Test a few weeks ago, made it two out of two at cricket's headquarters, and in doing so stroked 20 exquisite boundaries the best of them coming after lunch off successive deliveries from Dwayne Bravo when he eased his front foot forward and stroked the pacer on either side of Ramnaresh Sarwan at extra-cover.
BRILLIANT KNOCK
In chalking up his maiden Test century in his 14th Test innings, Key, who, despite a golden run of six centuries in the past nine matches of the County championship, entered the match with a Test average of 18 and a top score of 52, stroked 23 boundaries with his best coming when, on 78, he eased on to the back foot and drove past the left of cover, when, on 82, he slipped his left foot forward and drove pacer Fidel Edwards straight, and when, on 97, he went inside and clipped the pacer to the mid-wicket boundary.
Coming together after an arrogant Marcus Trescothick had fallen to fast bowler Tino Best at 29 for one when the left-hander, after hooking for four, carelessly or disrespectfully attempted to hook again and lobbed a catch to square-leg, Strauss and Key caned the wayward West Indies bowlers whose variety consisted of deliveries wide of the offstump, deliveries wide of the legstump, juicy half-volleys and short deliveries that were disdainfully cut, pulled and hooked to the boundary.
