Cook turns up heat for top score

The Essex left-hander, unbeaten on 126 with England reaching 302 for two before the second day was completely washed out by rain, hit a determined 160 after the showers finally relented to allow play to resume at Chester-le-Street this morning.

Cook's steady innings, which included 17 fours, eclipsed his previous best of 139 not out against West Indies in Barbados two months ago and helped England reach 411 for four by lunch at the Riverside.

His century, which spanned over eight hours at the crease, also continued a prolific 2009 for Cook, who now averages over 70 in the seven Tests played during the calendar year.

Despite his impressive achievement, however, Cook's innings was largely overshadowed by an aggressive display from Kevin Pietersen, who dominated their 84-run stand and contributed 45 runs to it with a flurry of early boundaries.

Strike bowler Fidel Edwards, who delivered a marathon 11-over spell until shortly before lunch, had given England plenty to think about with a fiery start to the day.

Nightwatchman James Anderson was fortunate on two occasions to survive and it took Edwards until the seventh over of the day to finally end the 44-run stand. After unsettling the Lancashire seamer with more short deliveries, Edwards pitched the ball up and bowled him off his pads.

That brought Pietersen to the crease with plenty to prove after his first-ball duck in the opening Test at Lord's, and he raced to 15 off eight balls by hitting Jerome Taylor for three boundaries in the next over.

Taylor's expensive over prompted captain Chris Gayle to replace him with left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn, but after causing Cook problems with an early delivery which turned excessively, both batsmen appeared to be playing him with relative ease.

However, in the sixth over of his spell, Benn earned his reward by inducing a leading edge as Cook pushed forward, with Gayle taking the catch at mid-off.