Cook sees England to safety

Alastair Cook is all smiles after bringing up a first Test ton in 28 innings dating back to 2007

Alastair Cook ended his century drought in style to help England secure a draw in the fourth Test against West Indies.

Any doubts that existed over the outcome of the match of were dispelled by Cook, who batted throughout the final day in Barbados for a superb unbeaten 139.

It represented his highest Test score - and his first three-figure contribution since December 2007 - but, more importantly from a team perspective, it saw England wipe out a first-innings deficit of 149 before, with the tourists 279 for two, the captains agreed to call time an hour and 10 minutes early.

Those figures had long since become irrelevant as the game petered out into a predictable stalemate, although, for the record, Kevin Pietersen contributed 72 not out in what amounted to little more than batting practice.

He and Cook shared an unbroken third-wicket stand of 150, but the most telling partnership was that between Cook and Andrew Strauss.

Resuming on six without loss - trailing by 143 and in the knowledge that a collapse of Sabina Park proportions would cost them the match - the England openers negotiated the first hour and a half’s play today to effectively remove the already remote possibility of defeat.

Strauss fell half an hour before lunch and Owais Shah succumbed shortly after the interval to leave England 129 for two, yet one sensed West Indies had long since given up on bowling England out on the flattest of tracks.

As it was, Cook made the most of a noticeable lack of pressure to cruise to a first hundred in 28 innings, a barren stretch which began after the final Test in Sri Lanka 14 months ago.

Andrew Strauss chops on to Chris Gayle, one of only two wickets to fall on the final day

While Cook can sleep a little easier after ridding himself of that unwanted statistic, England will need little reminding that they head to Trinidad for the final Test on Friday needing to win to draw the series.

They can, however, take much heart from their performance with the bat in Bridgetown, with Cook and Strauss initially to the fore.

Strauss, two not out overnight, whipped Daren Powell off his toes through square-leg to open his account for the day, but he was outscored by Cook, who followed up a thick edge in the first over with three emphatic pulls in the space of six balls.

He was fortunate, however, to see Brendan Nash narrowly fail to get his fingers to a top-edged sweep off Sulieman Benn when he had made 30, although to class it as a drop would be harsh in the extreme given the ground the fielder made, running back from midwicket.

Without ever looking entirely comfortable early on, Cook made steady progress, driving Jerome Taylor firmly to mid-off’s right, only to see Strauss play on as he attempted to cut Chris Gayle, operating from around the wicket.

Cook brought up his fifty shortly before lunch, yet he lost Shah in the sixth over of the afternoon session, left-arm spinner Benn beating his defensive push with a delivery which struck him on the toe.

Pietersen helped ease any nerves in the dressing room when an inside-edged single took England to 150 and, crucially, into the lead.

Kevin Pietersen compiles a stylish - but largely irrelevant - 72 not out in Barbados

He twice drove Benn straight for four, while Cook breathed a sigh of relief after driving Fidel Edwards just over the head of Gayle at short cover when he had made 75.

That stroke was the exception rather than the norm, with Cook - his timing improving all the time - finding the midwicket and cover boundary off successive Gayle deliveries to go into the nineties.

The 50 stand arrived shortly before Cook became the youngest England player - at 24 years and 67 days - to 3,000 Test runs, beating David Gower’s record.

Pietersen continued to prosper while a nervous Cook stalled on 99, but the long wait for a hundred - his eighth in Tests and his third against West Indies - came to an end when he worked Ryan Hinds off his pads. He had faced 193 balls and struck 11 fours.

Hinds was swung into the midwicket stand by Pietersen, who brought up a 74-ball half-century with a paddle-sweep off the same bowler, but that was nothing more than a statistical footnote.

All that was left was for Cook to overhaul his previous highest score - 127 against Pakistan at Old Trafford in 2006 - before Pietersen brought the day to a conclusion by swatting Ramnaresh Sarwan though extra cover for four.

It was a fitting image at the end of a Test in which bat has dominated ball to an unhealthy degree.