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KINGSTON, March 11: England made a good start to their attempt to win a series in the Caribbean for the first time in 36 years as they reduced West Indies to 81-3 at lunch on day one of the first Test , including the prized wicket of captain Brian Lara.
Lara and Devon Smith added 51 for the third wicket as the home side recovered from 22 for two but Simon Jones, playing in only his third Test and first since injuring his knee 16 months ago, had Lara caught for 23 just before the interval.
Smith was unbeaten on 42, while Shivnarine Chanderpaul was on one at lunch. Lara won the toss and chose to bat on a good-looking pitch, but must have been ruing the decision when Chris Gayle (five) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (nought) were dismissed within 40 minutes.
Gayle smashed one shot over cover off Matthew Hoggard before he played back to Steve Harmison and deflected the ball onto his stumps. Sarwan was then trapped in front by Hoggard.
Lara then joined Smith and after a couple of streaky boundaries behind square, he found his timing, with one lovely flick off his legs bringing up one of his four boundaries.
Scoreboard
WEST INDIES (1st Innings):
C.H. Gayle b Harmison 5
D. Smith not out 42
R.R. Sarwan lbw b Hoggard 0
B.C. Lara c Flintoff b Jones 23
S. Chanderpaul not out 1
EXTRAS (LB-3, W-1, NB-6) 10
TOTAL (for three wkts, 25 overs) 81
FALL OF WKTS: 1-17, 2-22, 3-73.
TO BAT: R.O. Hinds, R.D. Jacobs, T. Best, C.D. Collymore, A. Sanford, F.H. Edwards.
BOWLING (to-date): Hoggard 9-1-35-1; Harmison 7-2-17-1; Flintoff 5-1-13-0; Jones 4-1-13-1.
ENGLAND: M.P. Vaughan, M.E. Trescothick, M.A. Butcher, N. Hussain, G.P. Thorpe, A. Flintoff, C.M.W. Read, A.F. Giles, S.P. Jones, S.J. Harmison, M.J. Hoggard. -Reuters
