Cricket West Indies v England - First test: The England team, so often derided as being the slowest dog out of the traps, barnstormed their way to a 10-wicket win in the first Test here in Jamaica which even by the surprises and turnarounds that the modern game seems to produce was truly astonishing.
After three days of intense cricket the game had been delicately poised, a slight advantage to the tourists but no more. By lunch on a sparkling-fresh fourth day, it was all over bar the noisiest of England celebrations, West Indies humiliatingly sent packing in their second innings for 47, their lowest total in a 76-year Test history that stretches back 406 matches and their worst at this ground by 92 runs.
England were impelled to their victory by a remarkable spell of fast, hostile and relentlessly accurate bowling from Steve Harmison, a fellow who has frustrated so much in the past that he was not offered a central contract when they were dished out last September.
His performance yesterday puts him up with the best. Many great fast bowlers have graced this famous old ground but none, not even the mighty Curtly Ambrose, who would have gazed approvingly yesterday at a bowler in his own mould, has bettered Harmison's seven for 12. It was truly memorable.
The bowler modestly tugged his shirt up on his coathanger shoulders and led the team from the field in triumph. It was his day of days.
Harmison will know, though, that he received the best possible support from Matthew Hoggard, whose two wickets included that of Brian Lara without scoring - in an experienced West Indies middle order that could not muster a run between them.
With a first-innings lead of 28, England were left with the simple task of scoring just 20 to win, which Michael Vaughan and Trescothick accomplished in 15 deliveries, the England captain hitting the slow left-arm spin of Ryan Hinds for a four and a pulled six.
Local expectations had been high but now they were left in tatters like the topsails of Port-Royal pirate ships after a round of grapeshot. By a quirk this was the lowest total seen in Test cricket since Ambrose himself tore the heart out of England for 46 in Trinidad a decade ago. Perhaps they can draw solace from the fact that England followed that humiliation with a great victory in Barbados.
At any rate Lara's homecoming to Trinidad, for Friday's second Test, promises to be a fraught one. There is precious little time for his side to regroup.
Whatever it was that Vaughan said to Harmison in the team huddle before play began, he should bottle it. If the game was not to peter out into a draw, England had to come out strongly with a ball that was still only three overs old. The bowlers delivered: four overs were needed yesterday for the breakthrough to come, and only another 18 for the innings to end.
It is not quite the fastest demolition that West Indies batting has suffered, as Australia took just 19.1 overs to dismiss them for 51 in Trinidad five years ago, but it was seven balls faster than it took Andy Caddick, Darren Gough and Dominic Cork to rout them for 54 at Lord's in 2000.
All 10 wickets fell for just 34 runs, the highest partnership one of 20 for the sixth wicket that took them past the spectre of an innings defeat. Only Chris Gayle (12) and Jacobs (15) reached double figures. Jacobs, an individualist, belted three boundaries but it was a brief respite. Harmison dug one in and Nasser Hussain at short leg had time to run round and take the ball as it ballooned from the batsman's gloves. Game over, 1-0 to England.
Guardian Service
