The Digicel-sponsored West Indies slumped to an innings and 83-run defeat just after lunch on Monday as England’s bowlers tortured them with seam, swing and aggressive intent on the final day of the second and final Test at Chester-le-Street.
England completed a 2-0 sweep to grab back the Wisden Trophy from the West Indies team, who held it for just 69 days following its 1-0 triumph in the Digicel Series in the Caribbean.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul provided typical stickiness on 47 but the other batsmen were powerless to resist. The visitors – resuming on 115 for three – were skittled for 176 in their second innings.
James Anderson – a five-wicket hero in the first innings – claimed four for 38 and earned the Man of the Match award. Tim Bresnan finally made his mark on the series with three for 45.
Two early interruptions for light rain offered the West Indies some hope of salvaging the draw, but also freshened up the pitch once the skies quickly cleared.
Chanderpaul and Lendl Simmons extended their overnight fourth wicket partnership to 52, before Anderson’s breakthrough sparked a terminal slide as the last seven wickets tumbled for 35 runs.
After compiling 10 off 34 balls, Simmons limply slapped a wide, short delivery to backward point.
Bresnan claimed his maiden Test wicket shortly afterwards when Brendan Nash chipped a good length inswinger straight to midwicket, the second soft dismissal of the day.
Anderson and Bresnan swiftly ensured that early West Indian wastefulness was seized upon, with some quality bowling in favorable conditions.
Denesh Ramdin followed his impressive first innings half century with a two-ball duck as his tentative forward defence ended with an edge to third slip off Bresnan.
Chanderpaul continued to watch his partners struggle to cope, with Anderson ripping out the off stump of both Jerome Taylor and Sulieman Benn just before lunch.
Taylor, carelessly aggressive from the outset, missed an expansive drive, while Benn got a perfectly-pitched outswinger which even the best would have struggled to keep out. Lunch, taken at 167 for eight, would have hardly settled when Chanderpaul departed frustratingly short of a half century. The veteran left-hander struck six fours off 82 balls, before he nibbled at Anderson and gave an historic catch behind the stumps to Paul Collingwood, who had been standing in for Matt Prior since tea on day four.
Bresnan, in only his second Test and the least-heralded of the attack, wrapped up the match when Fidel Edwards’s uncomfortable swivel pull/hook sailed to fine leg.
England’s series sweep vaults them into fifth spot above Pakistan in the ICC’s world rankings.
The West Indies remain seventh, but are now only a few points above New Zealand in eighth.
Ravi Bopara, who hit centuries at Lord’s and Chester-le-Street, earned the Man of the Series award for England, while Edwards – with seven wickets in the two Tests – claimed the West Indian equivalent with other contenders difficult to identify.
