Alastair Cook continued his love affair with Lord's as England exploited West Indies' disrupted build-up to lay the foundations for a major total in the opening npower Test.

The Essex batsman has enjoyed his fair share of success at the venue in the 14 months since scoring a century on his Test debut in India, passing 50 twice in his previous three Test innings at the impressive ground.

That sense of occasion inspired him again with Cook progressing to his fifth century in just 15 Test appearances to help England reach 200 for three at the end of an opening day restricted to 56 overs by bad light and rain.

His unbeaten 102 after over four hours at the crease was aided by wayward opening spells from a West Indies attack who were yet to bowl a competitive ball after rain decimated their only practice match at Taunton.

But Cook also had to battle once West Indies discovered the right line and length after deciding to bowl first in seamer-friendly conditions, and took over two hours to progress from 50 to three figures.

It was the kind of determination and application which will have delighted coach Peter Moores on his first day in charge after three of his team-mates had failed to exploit a golden opportunity for runs.

Influenced by conditions ideal for seam and swing bowling, new captain Ramnaresh Sarwan put England into bat hopeful his young and developing side could get enough deliveries in the right areas to trouble the top order.

Instead they all struggled to find any rhythm or consistency with 22-year-old fast bowler Jerome Taylor particularly struggling and hauled off after only three overs with the new ball and bowled only three more all day.

By the time seamer Daren Powell did get it right during an impressive spell after lunch, England had already enjoyed an 88-run opening stand with Cook quickly over-taking stand-in captain Andrew Strauss as the dominant batsman.

Strauss had shown the way after a watchful opening for England, hitting Taylor for successive boundaries in the sixth over of the day which threatened to propel England towards a major total.

But just three overs after lunch, Strauss became over-ambitious and drove Powell off the front foot straight to point for 33 to become the first England batsman to miss out on a big innings.

It presented Middlesex batsman Owais Shah, preferred to Andrew Flintoff after the all-rounder failed a fitness test on his left ankle, with a superb chance to make his mark on his home county ground.

Just four overs later, however, Shah edged a bouncing delivery from Powell to third slip where Devon Smith held the second of his three catches low to his right.

Kevin Pietersen started strongly and Lord's braced itself for one of his trademark innings two years after he made such an impressive debut against Australia at the same venue.

His fluency was not helped by successive breaks for bad light and the growing accuracy of the West Indies attack, particularly the experienced Corey Collymore from the Pavilion End.

Perhaps frustrated by his inability to maintain his momentum, Pietersen lashed out at Collymore just two overs after a return from a lengthy bad light interruption and found Devon Smith at cover for his third catch of the day.

Even Cook, who reached his half-century off 76 balls, was struggling to find any rhythm as Collymore and all-rounder Dwayne Bravo combined effectively to smother England's scoring options.

Cook was fortunate with several edges which fell short of the slip cordon and flashed over the top of the slips for one of the nine fours included in his century.

But he battled through to bring up his century with a clipped two off Collymore to enable a bright start to the new Moores England regime.

A further interruption for bad light, which was greeted with boos by the frustrated Lord's crowd, effectively ended the day's play and ensured West Indies were denied in their efforts to make further inroads.

Former England pair Mark Ramprakash and Mark Butcher produced an impressive third-wicket stand as Surrey declared on 626 for three on the second day of their LV County Championship match with Sussex.

Mushtaq Ahmed finally claimed the wicket of Butcher for 179 but Ramprakash was unbeaten on 266 when Surrey declared at Hove. Ramprakash hit 31 fours and three sixes during his innings, while Ali Brown added 50.