England in control as Key and Strauss hit high notes

Robert Key and Andrew Strauss gave England supporters a four-and-a-half-hour glimpse of the future yesterday at Lord's, and boy did it look bright. The pair, playing in only their ninth and fourth Test matches respectively, lit up the home of cricket with a glorious partnership of 291 and gave England the perfect start to this four-Test series.

Robert Key and Andrew Strauss gave England supporters a four-and-a-half-hour glimpse of the future yesterday at Lord's, and boy did it look bright. The pair, playing in only their ninth and fourth Test matches respectively, lit up the home of cricket with a glorious partnership of 291 and gave England the perfect start to this four-Test series.

The stroke-play of the rookies batsmen delighted a capacity crowd and made the West Indian bowlers toil on a hot, humid day. They made a nonsense of Brian Lara's decision to allow England to bat first and the West Indian captain would have been happy that this tortuous day was prematurely brought to a close when Key and his captain, Michael Vaughan, accepted the umpires offer of bad-light.

The boos from the crowd which greeted this decision were unfair. Strauss and Key had provided the crowd with the highest second-wicket partnership at Lord's and the close of play total of 391-2 had been scored at a rate of 4.5 runs an over.

For Strauss scoring centuries at Lord's is becoming as predictable as Michael Schumacher seeing a chequered flag. But for Key this innings was more than a statement, it was unequivocal confirmation that he was not just a bully of average bowlers in county cricket, but that he too is a class act.

Despite becoming the first player to reach 1,000 runs this season Key would have wondered whether he was good enough to score centuries on the biggest of stages. Since his debut against India in the summer of 2002 the 25-year-old has showed promise but a single half-century and an average of 18.76 suggested he was running out of time. But following his unbeaten 167 this is no longer the case. Key's innings was full of crisp drives, powerful pulls and dismissive flicks through mid-wicket, one of which took him to three figures.

"In the past I have been too desperate to show everyone what I can do," admitted a tired but elated Key. "I was not feeling in the greatest of form coming into this match. I knew I just had to get through the first hour and with luck things would come right. When I got to three figures it was the best feeling I have had playing cricket."

Following this display it is now the selectors who are under pressure. Key's chance came through the poor driving of a man in South London but it will be interesting to see where England's selectors go when Mark Butcher turns up at Edgbaston having recovered from the whiplash he sustained in Monday's accident. Butcher is unlikely to fall on his sword in the way Nasser Hussain did when Strauss scored 112 on his debut.

David Graveney, the Chairman of selectors, will insist that this is a good position to be in but I would not enjoy the task of telling one of these players that they are not playing in the second Test. A compromise will probably be made and it may involve Andrew Flintoff. This could be the ideal moment to send him for the operation he appears to need.

Key's progress was helped by dire West Indian bowling and a dropped catch at second slip when he was on 16 but the major battle for a cricketer on this stage is handling the occasion. Being at the centre of this country's sporting attention for a week has proved to be too much for many but once the right-hander scored his first run he looked like an old sweat.

Many will question Lara's decision to bowl first ­ possibly even the Queen when she was introduced to the teams during the tea interval ­ but the captain's bowlers did little to help him out.

"Our discipline has to be looked at," said Lara. "I don't think any of our bowlers will be proud of what they did today. We did not bowl in the right areas and the whole team did not look focused. I did not feel that choosing to bowl first was a negative decision." At 10am, 30 minutes before the toss, the pitch had a greasy feel to it and the forecast was for overcast and humid conditions. Such an atmosphere is ideal for swing bowling and these factors encouraged Lara to play Fidel Edwards and to bowl first.

The quick dismissal of Marcus Trescothick, who shovelled a dreadful shot to square-leg, gave the tourists early encouragement but it was then that the sun started to break through. Even at this stage of the day the bowling was wild and wayward but Strauss and Key preferred to be watchful rather than aggressive.

But their attitude changed after lunch. Lara introduced Omari Banks into the attack but the off-spinner took a pounding. His first over was a maiden but then Key and Strauss smashed him for 34 runs in three overs. Lara attempted to rotate his bowlers but each combination failed to stem the run-feast.

Strauss scored his second Test century before tea and proceeded to kiss the Lord's pitch. He had every reason to. This was the third time, including a one-day century, in four innings the Middlesex captain has scored a hundred for England at his home ground and on the one occasion he failed, when he was run-out by Hussain, he scored 83.