Samuels Ton Leads Windies Recovery

Nottingham: Marlon Samuels (107*) and Darren Sammy (88*) add an unbroken 168 as West Indies rally to 304-6 on day one of the second Test with England.

Trailing 1-0 in the series, they were soon in trouble after opting to bat.

James Anderson and Stuart Broad took two wickets apiece to reduce them to 63-4 before Graeme Swann had Shiv Chanderpaul lbw for 46.

But Samuels (107no) hit 15 fours in his third Test century and skipper Sammy made a Test-best unbeaten 88.

Earlier, England, who reduced West Indies to 79 for 4 by lunch, squeezed them dry in the first hour of the afternoon. Chanderpaul and Samuels added 13 runs in as many overs before Chanderpaul's unwieldy straight drive brought the first boundary of the afternoon. He had nine boundaries, including a few covert flicks and edges and even a couple of drives, before Swann intervened.

James Anderson had a hand in all four morning wickets, dismissing Kirk Edwards and Darren Bravo in an opening spell of 9-4-22-2 and holding two slip catches as Stuart Broad accounted for the openers, Adrian Barath, without scoring, and Kieran Powell for 33.

Anderson has an outstanding Test record at Trent Bridge, 33 wickets at 17 runs each going into the Test. He was initially so contented that he might have won an advertising contract for camomile tea, although while he held slip catches for Broad, others were spurning them off his own bowling in a manner that suggested his equable mood could not be relied upon.

West Indies won the toss, and their decision to bat was one that England's captain, Andrew Strauss, suggested that he would also have taken, but England did not regard it as quite the straightforward decision that it appeared. They expected that the pitch would have most life in the first two sessions and, although that life was limited, it was more than enough for West Indies.

Broad was also comfortable on his home ground and he struck first, Barath edging a back-foot force in Broad's second over and Anderson intercepting a fast, athletic catch with a nonchalant thrust of his left hand at third slip.

Brief scores
West Indies 303 for 6 (Samuels 107*, Sammy 88*, Anderson 2-58, Broad 2-59)