Ryan Sidebottom was the only England bowler with the hint of a smile on his face in St Kitts after the visitors had suffered more than six hours of torture.

With the First Test less than a week away, Andrew Strauss's team achieved just a couple of successes in a whole day's play as West Indies A -- a mixture of reserves and possible candidates for next Wednesday's series-opener in Jamaica - powered to 343 for two.

Sidebottom, himself bidding to earn a place at Sabina Park, did not manage even one strike, returning figures of 13-3-40-0 while Lendl Simmons scored an unbeaten 171 and 18-year-old Adrian Barath contributed a career-best 132.

But despite the blandness of the pitch and the heat of the Caribbean sun, Sidebottom had reasons to be cheerful.

"It was a fantastic feeling just to be out there," said the left-arm paceman, who had not played a first-class match for either Notts or England for nearly six months because of injury problems. "I am chuffed from a personal point of view.

"The wicket is one of the flattest I have played on throughout my career and you just have to keep plugging away."