Cook keeps his cool

The hosts had 88 on the board for the first wicket between Cook (73no) and Andrew Strauss - and after their brief stumble, they righted themselves to 143 for two midway through the second session.

Strauss, who had begun the day by losing the toss, gave himself up with a skewed drive to point less than three overs after lunch - and Owais Shah got a delivery which bounced on him and resulted in a catch at third slip.

The Middlesex batsman, who went cheaply on his home ground in only his second Test, was unfortunate to the extent that the Windies pace attack had got their eye in after a disappointing first session.

In favourable conditions, the tourists' three frontline pace bowlers were understandably rusty - having had no opportunity to bowl at Taunton in their rain-ruined sole fixture before the start of this four-Test series.

Left-handers Cook and Strauss took advantage of their opponents' lack of control and regular mis-direction on to the pads.

Under cloudy skies, it appeared a missed opportunity for Ramnaresh Sarwan's side when England reached lunch without loss.

Cook subsequently helped to keep the hosts in decent shape - after those two wickets in the space of four overs - as he and Kevin Pietersen joined forces.

The compact opener passed his 76-ball 50 shortly after Strauss' departure, with an on-drive for an all-run four off Corey Collymore to go with four boundaries.

By the time the teams went off for bad light and took an early tea just before 3.30pm, Cook had moved to 82 - and his unbroken stand with Pietersen stood at 55 out of 158 for two.