LONDON, England (CMC):

Pacer Fidel Edwards lamented the poor West Indies fielding yesterday that allowed England to complete the opening day of the first Test at Lord's in a satisfying position.

Ravi Bopara - dropped twice - stroked an unbeaten 118 to steer England to 289 for seven at the close with as many as six dropped catches in the afternoon.

"We didn't do ourselves any justice with all those dropped catches," Edwards said after play ended.

Edwards had four catches put down off his bowling but still finished with striking figures of four for 53 off 19 overs and rates the current state of the game as even.

'Even game'

"Probably I would say it (the game) is a bit even. If we had taken our chances, we would probably be on top now, we would probably be batting today. Hopefully, tomorrow we can come out and finish it off," added the 27-year-old Barbadian, who bowled with great pace and hostility.

"It (pitch) is green but it is pretty slow. I don't mind the fact that it's flat, but once the ball keeps swinging that will be ideal for me. My job is to bowl fast and get the ball in the right areas. This is Lord's, the home of cricket, and every player dreams of doing well here. I had a good rhythm today and felt quite comfortable. Come tomorrow, we will look to maintain the pressure and look to bowl them out as early as possible," he said.

Edwards was sensational after lunch, grabbing three wickets in a six-over spell. He sent back Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen to consecutive balls and also dismissed Paul Collingwood.

"That was a very good ball to get rid of Kevin. Hopefully, I would be able to get a few more of those to him (in the upcoming matches)," Edwards noted.

He suggested that the IPL helped his match sharpness.

"It (the IPL) helped me a lot, seeing that I kept bowling, it really helped me being in the IPL, but IPL and Test cricket are really different so you've got to adapt and adapt really quickly," he said.

Play resumes today at 11 a.m. (6 a.m. Eastern Caribbean Time/5 a.m. Jamaica Time).