Nottingham: Captain Darren Sammy has backed fast bowler Kemar Roach to overcome the no-ball problem that haunted him on the second day of the second Test here Saturday and resulted in two reprieves for England opener Alistair Cook.

Twice Roach had Cook caught behind - on one in the third over before lunch and then again on 12 in the 11th over of the innings just after the break - but both deliveries were illegal.

"Once you bowl no-balls you stand the chance of these things happening. Kemar has always given his heart to this team. He always strives and even throughout this series he's been playing with an ankle niggle and he keeps running in day in and day out," Sammy told reporters.

"It's disappointing that you bowl a good ball, you get the result but it's a no-ball. But he kept coming in and created more opportunities and thank god Cook didn't cash in on it.

"It is something he and (coach Ottis Gibson) could work on. Maybe (he could) take a few more paces back. I'm not worried about that. Kemar will work that out before the Test match ends."

Fortunately for the West Indies, Cook made just 24 before nicking pacer Ravi Rampaul behind to wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin with the score on 43.

England made good progress, however, finishing the day on 259 for two with captain Andrew Strauss unbeaten on 102 and Kevin Pietersen on 72.

Sammy, who had earlier stroked his maiden Test century of 106 as the West Indies were dismissed for 370, admitted his side had not stuck to the game plan.

"It's good to get a Test hundred, it's a really good feeling. From a team point of view we didn't bat as we were supposed to this morning," Sammy said.

"The plan was for Marlon (Samuels) and myself to see out the first hour and look to get a big, big score of over 450. We gave our wickets away in the end."

He continued: "The wicket is a really good one for batting and we bowled too many four balls to England on both sides of the wicket and they were scoring quite freely."

Sammy and Samuels, who scored 117, posted a record stand of 204 for the seventh wicket - the highest for any Test team in England.

Brief Scores:

West Indies 370 (Marlon Samuels 117, Darren Sammy 106, Shiv Chanderpaul 46, Kieran Powell 33; Tim Bresnan 4-106, James Anderson 2-73, Stuart Broad 2-81)

England 259 for two (Andrew Strauss 102 not out, Kevin Pietersen 72 not out, Jonathan Trott 35, Alistair Cook 24; Ravi Rampaul 2-42) (IANS)