CRICKET SECOND TEST:ENGLAND RACED to a series win over West Indies with a nine-wicket victory on the fourth day of the second Test at Trent Bridge yesterday after being set a modest target of 108.

Captain Andrew Strauss (45) and Alastair Cook (43 not out) took England near the finishing line soon after tea and Jonathan Trott (17 not out) helped complete the task at 111-1. England are 2-0 up in the three-Test series after a five-wicket win at Lord’s in the first match.

“We are delighted to win but again it was quite hard work at times,” Strauss said. “We got ourselves in positions where we felt we could really take the game by the scruff of the neck but all credit to the West Indies they came back at us. It’s been a hot, hard four days and there were some really good performances from the lads for a well-earned victory.”

Marlon Samuels had held up the home side with a defiant 76 not out, helping lift West Indies from a desperate 61-6 overnight in their second innings to 165 all out. It was another fine knock by Samuels, who also topscored in the first innings with 117, but, captain Darren Sammy apart, he laboured virtually alone.

With the last man at the crease, Samuels thrashed the spin of Graeme Swann for two sixes and a four in what proved to be the penultimate over of the innings.

All-rounder Tim Bresnan had earlier dismissed Sammy for 25 to secure his fourth lbw victim of the innings and end a stout partnership of 49 with Samuels. Bresnan, whose patient 39 not out boosted England to 428 all out on Sunday, is proving a talisman for the team, having now won all 13 Tests he has played, and was named man of the match.

Strauss, who fell in the second innings to the off-spin of that man Samuels, is in fine shape too with centuries in both Tests ending an 18-month barren spell. The third Test starts at Edgbaston on June 7th.