West Indies wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin edges to his England counterpart, Matt Prior, on the second day of the second Test at Headingley yesterday. - Dellmar LEEDS, England (AP):
KEVIN PIETERSEN hit his first Test double century yesterday and Ryan Sidebottom took six wickets in a day to put England in a commanding position in the second Test against the West Indies.
England declared on 570 for seven on the second day at Headingley after Pietersen was caught for 226 when going for another big hit.
Sidebottom then took 4-24 for his first Test wickets six years after he made a disappointing debut and England bowled the West Indies out for 146. Following on, the tourists were 22 for two at the close, both wickets falling to the left-arm swing bowler.
With rain forecast later in the match, England will try and finish things off today to go 1-0 up in the four-match series. The first Test at Lord's was drawn.
"It was a good day for us today," Pietersen said. "Coming into the day with any thoughts of taking all their wickets and two more this evening and the possibility of ending the Test match the following day, we would have taken it.
"A lot of us are scoring a lot of runs and it looks like we're going to win a Test match. That's the most important thing."
With captain Ramnaresh Sarwan still off the field after damaging his shoulder by diving over the boundary trying to stop a four on Friday, the West Indies delayed taking the new ball until the 10th over of the day and Pietersen and Prior scored freely off the old one.
surprised
"I was very surprised," Pietersen said. "I knew that meant we had time to get ourselves in before we start facing the new ball. I don't know what their reasons were."
Starting on 130, Pietersen glanced Corey Collymore's third ball of the day to four and quickly moved on to his highest Test score. The South African-born batsman had scored 158 three times, but he guided a ball from Jerome Taylor down to third man to reach 160 with his 17th boundary.
He had a piece of luck when he sliced a ball from Powell between slip and gully for his 20th boundary.
Prior, who scored a century on his Test debut in the drawn match at Lord's, started the day on 13 and reached his 50 with a cover drive for four off Taylor. He had moved to 75 off 99 balls when he played inside a ball from Powell which flicked the top of off stump.
That ended a sixth-wicket stand of 160, and Plunkett hit seven fours in a partnership of 81 with Pietersen before the declaration came in the 123rd over.
After hitting two sixes and 24 boundaries, Pietersen miscued a ball from Dwayne Bravo high over cover and Taylor ran in from the boundary to take the catch.
With conditions cloudy and ideal for swing bowling, England's attack soon got on top and Sidebottom trapped both openers, Chris Gayle and Daren Ganga, for 23 runs.
Although Devon Smith and Sylvester Joseph defied the bowlers with a third-wicket stand of 45, wickets continued to fall. With Shivnarine Chanderpaul absent through injury and Sarwan unable to bat, England repeatedly broke through with Liam Plunkett taking 3-35 and Steve Harmison 2-55.
Little support
Bravo made 23 and Taylor 23 not out, but no one else stayed out long enough to support them and England enforced the follow on while leading by 424 runs. The West Indies had nine overs to survive but Sidebottom struck twice more.
The openers had moved to 20 when the left-armer struck Ganga on the pads. The West Indies sent bowler Powell in to try and survive the last few balls but he played no stroke to Sidebottom's inswinger and was also leg before for no score off the final ball of the day.
