Resurgent England thrash West Indies by ten wickets

Unnatural streaks in sport, be they winning or losing ones, must always come to an end, and England’s unwanted one of not having won the opening Test for the past 14 series was banished decisively. A victory in three days and by ten wickets is about as emphatic as it comes in Test cricket, and, for Andy Flower, the new team director, this was a welcome start to a job that will only get more difficult.
Once West Indies had been harried out with 28 overs remaining in the day, England needed only 32 to win. The late-afternoon sunshine can hardly be said to have bathed Lord’s in warmth, but the sight of England cantering home did warm English hearts, this being the first Test win since the heady days of Kevin Pietersen’s captaincy. Remember those?
After a winter of discontent during which England failed to win a Test match, lost a captain and a coach and suffered the indignity of being involved with an alleged fraudster, it was important to start this grand summer of cricket well. The selectors led the way with bold choices and the players responded with a near-flawless performance (the only quibble being four dropped chances), special mentions going to Ravi Bopara, Graeme Swann and Graham Onions.
Despite England’s excellence, the temptation to go overboard should be resisted. This was a supine performance from West Indies, save some small passages of resistance. Coping with the earliest Test match in England’s history has been a step too far for them. Clearly, and understandably, they have not enjoyed the conditions, the temperatures, the biting winds and the movement in the air and off the seam. The second morning apart, this was not because of a lack of effort, simply a lack of expertise, and it is hard to see them gaining the required knowledge in the short time before the next Test, which starts five days from now.
At lunch, with West Indies 80 for five, still trailing by 145, it looked as though not just a Friday night but an afternoon on the tiles for England was a certainty, but, as the afternoon sun eased conditions for batting, West Indies rediscovered their self-respect through a stirring three-figure partnership between Denesh Ramdin and Brendan Nash. The manner of their assault brought to mind the eccentricity of Marshal Foch in the middle of the Battle of the Marne in 1914: “My centre is giving way; my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.”
And so they did. Their partnership was worth 143 at better than a run a minute and was ended only when Stuart Broad hurried one down the hill and scuttled through Ramdin’s defence when the wicketkeeper had scored 61. Ramdin hit 11 fours in his fifty, mostly drives and cuts, as England strove too hard. Nash, punchy and compact, was also strong behind square on the off side and hurried through to his half-century in 93 balls.
England would have completed a much earlier victory had they not given both these batsmen a life: Ramdin put down by Onions off his own bowling on 46, and Nash by Swann off James Anderson at third slip on nought.
It was Nash who was the last man out, trying both to shepherd the tail and get to a hundred, but he finished 19 short of three figures when Alastair Cook held on to a fine swirling catch after the left-hander backed away and cut once too often.
When the early-morning drizzle relented to allow a start at noon, England might have expected the kind of procession witnessed the previous afternoon. Instead, as Lendl Simmons spent valuable time at the crease learning his craft, easing anything off line through the leg side with the kind of upright elegance that reminded observers of Mark Waugh, and Devon Smith engineered his way into the danger territory, for him, of the thirties and forties, England were forced to wait for 45 minutes for their first wicket of the day. Almost inevitably it came when Onions replaced Broad, to the kind of cheers only newly minted heroes can expect. His first ball clattered into Simmons’s helmet, to confirm again that the bowler’s wiry frame can pack a punch; his tenth landed in the hands of Cook, deliberately hovering at a deep leg gully — smart, rather than smart-arse captaincy, this.
The lights dimmed quickly then. Shivnarine Chanderpaul escaped the ignominy of a king pair by cutting Swann to the point fence, but that stroke was the sum of Chanderpaul’s efforts in the match. Prodding forward to Swann, he was deceived by the lack of turn and offered a catch, via inside edge and pad, to Bopara at silly point.
If Swann’s introduction was designed primarily to unnerve Smith — Swann had removed the left-hander four times in the past six innings — it worked in the sense that, on the stroke of lunch, Smith became the third man to fall in nine balls. Onions it was, though, who did the damage this time, a peach of an inswinger flattening his middle stump. West Indies went to lunch, hope extinguished.
“I haven’t seen a left-hander play Swann with any confidence yet,” Andrew Strauss, the England captain, said. “He’s a smart bowler and possibly coming in late in his career means he’s had a little more time to work out how to out-think people. Winning lifts the spirit of the team, makes people feel part of something special. The more you do it, the more you believe you can win with the chips down.”
Chris Gayle, the West Indies captain, said: “I’m obvously very disappointed by the manner we lost the game. Conditions hurt us and they will be more difficult in Durham.”
Ticket-holders deprived of a trip to Lord’s today by England’s three-day victory have been offered a full refund and also the chance of a 50 per cent discount for one of the two Lord’s warm-up days for the World Twenty20 in June. The half-price discount applies to Ireland against the Netherlands and New Zealand v India on June 1 or Sri Lanka v South Africa and England v West Indies on June 3. Spectators must present a valid ticket for today’s play at the North Gate ticket office on the day.
Scoreboard
England: First Innings 377 (R S Bopara 143, G P Swann 63 not out; F H Edwards 6 for 92)
Second Innings*A J Strauss not out14A N Cook not out14Extras (nb 4) 4Total (no wkt, 6.1 overs) 32
Bowling: Edwards 3.1-0-12-0; Taylor 3-0-20-0.
West Indies: First Innings 152 (G Onions 5 for 38)
Second Innings*C H Gayle c Swann b Anderson 0D S Smith b Onions 41R R Sarwan b Anderson 1L M P Simmons c Cook b Onions 21S Chanderpaul c Bopara b Swann 4B P Nash c Cook b Broad 81†D Ramdin b Broad 61J E Taylor lbw b Swann 15S J Benn b Swann 0F H Edwards c Bresnan b Broad 2L S Baker not out 2Extras (b 8, lb 18, w 2) 28Total (72.2 overs) 256
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-22, 3-70, 4-75, 5-79, 6-222, 7-243, 8-246, 9-249.
Bowling: Anderson 15-6-38-2; Broad 19.2-2-64-3; Bresnan 7-3-17-0; Swann 17-4-39-3; Onions 12-2-64-2; Bopara 2-0-8-0.
Umpires: S J Davis (Aus) and E A R de Silva (SL).
Source:The times