England collapse again

It was as familiar as your favourite movie only rather less enjoyable for the home spectators as England collapsed yet again in the face of the West Indies bowlers at a sun-drenched Edgbaston on Saturday.

The tourists bowled out England for 125 to win by an innings and 93 runs with two days to spare and ended a run of 10 consecutive overseas Test defeats.

Appropriately, West Indies captain Jimmy Adams, whose 98 had put his team in a position of total dominance, had the last word, his occasional left-arm spin clean bowling last man Ed Giddins for nought leaving Darren Gough 23 not out.

England at least kept the match going for longer than in the corresponding Test five years ago when the West Indies finished the game off at 12.18 on the third day to win by an innings and 64 runs. But that was precious little consolation for England captain Nasser Hussain.

England, facing a deficit of 218, badly needed a solid start. Instead they lost their first four wickets for 24. Mark Ramprakash started the slide, lbw for a three-ball duck to Courtney Walsh, England nought for one.

Hussain was dropped twice on his way to eight. But the out of form batsman's luck ran out when he edged a full-length ball from Walsh straight to wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs.

Then 14 for two became 14 for three when Graeme Hick completed a pair. The batsman was convinced he hadn't got any outside edge on a Walsh ball caught by Jacobs but umpire Venkataraghavan was in no doubt. The ageless Walsh, 37, was in complete control as brilliant opening spell figures of 107-10-3 proved.

Franklyn Rose also claimed a wicket, Alec Stewart playing on for eight as he tried to cut.

Michael Atherton and Nick Knight staged a minor recovery before the former England captain played on to King for 19 after two hours of resistance.

Earlier Adams just fell short of a century, last man out shortly before lunch. With number 11 Walsh keeping his end going lefthander Adams thrashed a ball from Gough through the offside. But Flintoff diving forward at cover took a startling one-handed catch.

Adams faced 299 balls, a splendid effort of concentration, that featured nine fours. Walsh was unbeaten on three, setting a new Test record of 56 not outs.

England will need to regroup quickly - there are just 12 days before the second Test at Lord's. The manner of their mauling will prompt calls for instant changes.

Yet bringing more players into the squad is sure to raise the hackles of county chairmen, many of whom had reservations about placing leading players on central contracts in the first place and will object strongly to losing even more staff to England commitments.

Of the 12 selected as the first recipients of the central contracts, only eight featured against the West Indies with neither Michael Vaughan nor Craig White considered to have played enough cricket for selection, Chris Schofield was completely overlooked and Dean Headley is sidelined for most of the season with back trouble.