England make solid start
Openers Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook gave England a solid but unspectacular start to the second npower Test against West Indies at Riverside.
After choosing to bat first on a bright morning, Strauss and his first-wicket partner were largely untroubled on the way to 27 without loss from just 12 overs after an hour's play.
It was hard to conclude that many more, if any, than the paltry 3,000 who had reportedly bought tickets were in attendance by the time Jerome Taylor bowled the first ball of the match to Strauss.
Taylor and his new-ball partner Fidel Edwards each struggled to find their line initially, to the extent that neither batsman was required to play a shot until the 11th legitimate delivery of the morning.
There was swing available, though, in bright but partly cloudy conditions - confirmed when Strauss aimed an off-drive at Taylor but missed as the ball snaked past his outside edge to the wicketkeeper.
It was not until the fourth over that Cook registered England's first run off the bat, a poke wide of cover off Edwards.
Strauss needed 18 deliveries in all to follow suit by pushing an opening single into the leg-side off the Barbadian.
But the England captain collected England's first boundary - a cover drive in Edwards' next over - and Cook levelled up when he steered Taylor to the third man fence.
The most telling moment in the opening exchanges came with Strauss' second four, Edwards digging one as he tried in vain to unsettle his opponent only to be pulled in front of square - a shot betraying the evident lack of pace in a benign surface.
That characteristic was ultimately likely to favour the home side, who - after their 10-wicket first Test win at Lord's last week - need only a draw here to take the two-match series and regain the Wisden Trophy.
