TEST CRICKET: ANDREW STRAUSS received back the Wisden Trophy, relinquished in Trinidad barely two months ago, shortly after lunch at Chester le Street, Durham yesterday, the final afternoon of the brief series. They probably needed to scrape the frost from it.
The ceremony, sensibly held inside, was watched on the big screen by a crowd numbering tens which is more than might have been expected were this not a part of the world where T-shirts constitute winter outerwear.
The wind was as stiff as the brandy that might have been needed to counteract the temperature. Different conditions then, and different circumstances for a West Indies team for whom it must have been bone-chilling purgatory compared with the balmy warmth of the Caribbean.
Resuming the final day on 115 for three, still needing 144 to avoid an innings defeat, they had lost a further five wickets before lunch in adding only 28 runs as, refreshed by a couple of breaks for sharp showers, James Anderson and Tim Bresnan bowled unchanged to the interval.
Precisely three overs after the interval the pair had polished things off, West Indies all out for 176, losing the match by an innings and 83 runs to go with the 10-wicket defeat at Lord’s.
West Indies have offered scant competition these past few weeks and only Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who made 47 before succumbing to the brilliant Anderson, offered resistance yesterday. But that is not to denigrate England’s overall performance, which has been first-rate. Tougher days lie ahead, but at this stage they have done pretty much all that Andy Flower can have asked of them.
The honours yesterday went to Anderson and, to the genuine delight of his team-mates, Bresnan, who, wondering perhaps if he might ever take a Test wicket, ploughed his considerable frame manfully into the wind and managed to do so with the last ball of his 25th over at this level and went on to collect two more, including the final one, to finish with three for 45.
Anderson, meanwhile, was outstanding. With atmospheric conditions perfect for him and having managed to get a decent shine on the ball, he made it talk so eloquently that it should be signed up immediately for next week’s Question Time. He now has complete control of swing both from over the wicket and, more difficult to execute, from around the wicket, where his ability to hoop the ball away from the left-hander brought memories of Bob Massie and, indeed, such was his pace, Mike Procter.
Two deliveries to tail-enders were as articulate as anything. First Jerome Taylor was worked this way and that by hokey-cokey bowling in which he sent the ball in, out, in, out before shaking the off-stump all about, cartwheeling it from the ground as a perfect away-swinger eluded the outside edge. The left-handed Sulieman Benn then received similar treatment from round the wicket, the stump plucked from the turf once more.
To Anderson also went the key wicket of Chanderpaul who, farming the strike now, pushed out to another ball that left him late and edged a straightforward catch to Paul Collingwood, substituting as wicketkeeper for Matt Prior. Guardian Service
Riverside Scoreboard
ENGLAND: First innings 569-6 dec (A Cook 160, R Bopara 108, M Prior 63, P Collingwood 60 not out)
WEST INDIES: First innings 310 (R Sarwan 100, D Ramdin 55, J Anderson 5-87)
WEST INDIES: Second innings
(overnight 115-3)
D Smith lbw b Swann 11
C Gayle c Strauss b Onions 54
R Sarwan lbw b Onions 22
L Simmons c Sub b Anderson 10
S Chanderpaul c Collingwood b Anderson 47
B Nash c Sub b Bresnan 1
D Ramdin c Anderson b Bresnan 0
J Taylor b Anderson 5
S Benn b Anderson 0
F Edwards c Sub b Bresnan 4
L Baker not out 4
Extras (b8 lb5 w5) 18
––––––
Total(all out, 44 overs) 176
Fall of wickets:1-53, 2-88, 3-89, 4-141, 5-142, 6-146, 7-163, 8-167, 9-168.
Bowling:Anderson 16-5-38-4, Broad 5-1-21-0, Swann 3-0-13-1, Onions 6-0-46-2 (1w), Bresnan 14-2-45-3 (4w)
England won by an innings and 83 runs England win the two-match series 2-0.
