Cricket: Prior Catches Century Bug

England cracked on in the sunshine yesterday, blistering to 553 for five before light sepulchral even by the standard of Rudi Koertzen put paid to things for the day. By then, with Ian Bell and Matt Prior embellishing the day with an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 190, the first Test was already beyond the reach of a West Indies side as undercooked as a fairground burger.

Ramnaresh Sarwan's side were diligent and enthusiastic throughout a trying day but fallibility in catching the ball cost them dearly as Paul Collingwood twice survived relatively simple chances in the early stages of his innings (and was the beneficiary of an astounding misjudgment by the umpire Asad Rauf) to register his fourth Test century.

Later, as the bowling tired - Sarwan is a hard taskmaster - Bell moved methodically and undemonstratively towards a hundred of his own and Prior, in his debut innings, came in and plundered in precisely the manner that Peter Moores, England's new coach, would have anticipated when he nailed his credentials as wicketkeeper-batsman to the mast, reaching a remarkable hundred at almost a run a ball. No keeper has made more on his debut for England, and none balder. A contract for the Advanced Hair Studio surely awaits.

There was some shoddy work with the second new ball, matching that with the first. Do bowlers lose a silicon chip when presented with this in the way that new golf clubs seem to develop a fierce hook or slice once money changes hands? Yet the West Indies pace attack, stereotyped as it is, was persistent, operating to a strict plan in the channel wide of off stump and finding movement in the air throughout the day, provided the ball was pitched up. For effort alone, Daren Powell and particularly Jerome Taylor, so ineffective at the start of the match that he was ignored for most of the first day, deserved better than they got.

Given the back-up that the bowlers received from the ground fielding, the catching was deplorable. Collingwood, having played as well as anyone the previous evening for his 21, began yesterday as if form had deserted him. When 31, having just eased Taylor to the extra-cover boundary, he drove vigorously at an away swinger and sliced it head-high to gully, where Darren Ganga, perhaps catching the ball in his own mind before it had reached him, made such a botch of it that Runako Morton, an effervescent presence at second slip, prostrated himself and beat his fists on the turf.

One run later, in Taylor's next over, Collingwood, having observed away swing only, opted to pad up to a clever double-bluff inswinger, the ball crashing into his front pad. It was unarguably lbw, unless it was Rauf with whom he was arguing, a scandalous decision at this level. Dickie Bird was a noted advocate of not out but even he would have sent Collingwood packing. So there was some irony later when Rauf, in tribute almost, decided to swap his straw hat for the sort of white ratting cap favoured by Bird.

There was one further chance offered by Collingwood, the last until Dwayne Bravo trimmed his off bail shortly before tea, and it came when, having reached 36, he hooked Corey Collymore, in his first over from the Pavilion End, high to long leg where Taylor misjudged the flight of the ball and spilled what should have been a straightforward catch.

Thereafter Collingwood was faultless, neat off his legs as ever, taking toll of the second new ball when he and Bell tucked in for a while, and reaching his century on the angle to third man. He batted for just over 4½ hours, hitting 14 fours and adding 144 for the fifth wicket with Bell.

Meanwhile Bell was playing with understated skill. This cannot have been an easy innings to play, the implication of his move down the order to No6 being that it was he whose place was under pressure from the indulgence in, and impending return of, Michael Vaughan.

Bell was circumspect at the start, taking 37 minutes to get off the mark, but then prospered, reaching his half- century during the new-ball shabbiness. Only after Collingwood was flummoxed by the movement down the slope did he retreat into his shell, but the advent of Prior and the manner in which the new player seized control of the situation removed the imperative for him to score more freely.

Long-term followers of England will recognize some of the perkiness and flourish of Alec Stewart in Prior's brisk approach yesterday, even if he has not quite mastered the art of the bat twirl. But he punches his weight off the back foot, pulls willingly and drives with some panache.

Once, during a brief spell of spin, he pulled Chris Gayle ferociously back past the bowler. By the time he reached 96 he had overtaken Bell, who had a 56-run start, reaching his century by laying back and cutting Gayle square to the Tavern boundary. It had taken only 105 balls and contained 16 fours.

Bell's own hundred, the sixth of his career and second at Lord's, soon followed, from a more sedate 184 balls. Not since Trent Bridge in 1938 have four England batsmen made centuries in the same innings.