Cook keeps England in driving seat

Cricket : Alastair Cook hit his sixth Test hundred before debutant Darren Sammy struck back with three wickets in an over at…

Cricket: Alastair Cook hit his sixth Test hundred before debutant Darren Sammy struck back with three wickets in an over at Old Trafford.

England extended their lead to 425 by progressing to 284 for seven against West Indies, Sammy instigating a mini-slump with the removal of Ian Bell, Matt Prior and Liam Plunkett in a five-ball spell.

Essex opener Cook, 22, only made his international debut 15 months ago but has become as consistent as Kevin Pietersen, who weighed in with 68 before being dismissed in unusual fashion.

Thanks to their century stand for the third wicket, England progressed to 265 for four shortly after tea.

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Pietersen, fresh from a career-best 226 at Headingley in the second match of the npower series, was out in freak circumstances as a short ball from Dwayne Bravo clattered into his helmet and sent it careering into the stumps.

It was only a minor setback to England's progress, however, with Cook reaching three figures with a savage pulled four off all-rounder Sammy, his 10th boundary.

He perished to off-spinner Chris Gayle — whose first over of the match did not arrive until the 51st of the second innings — when, prodding forward, he was adjudged leg before wicket for 106.

Bell and Prior nicked similar deliveries and although Plunkett played and missed at the hat-trick ball, an inside edge ballooned of the batsman's thigh later in the over and was well held by Dwayne Bravo diving forward from second slip.