Cricket Fourth and final testAfter two days of the final Test, West Indies are shot to pieces, their game in tatters, unable to cling on in the face of an assault by England's tail-end Charlies and fast bowling of the very highest calibre from Steve Harmison.
For two hours and 20 minutes of the late morning and early afternoon, Brian Lara raged against the dying of the light, his vicious 79 an angry innings by a man disgruntled at the level of mediocrity to which his side had sunk.
Later, as the storm clouds gathered and West Indies followed on 318 behind, Chris Gayle, unencumbered by pressure, belted six boundaries from Matthew Hoggard's second over with the new ball, wickedly powerful strokes the lot of them and all round the wicket. It was a feat unprecedented in Test history.
But Harmison then punched a hole in the West Indies second innings, taking two for 14 for eight wickets in the day.
When a side produces such an adrenalin-charged performance in the field, as had England, it is difficult to recapture the momentum, the 10-minute interval between innings ample time for nervous energy to dissipate.
Ashley Giles, unused in the 37 overs it took to take the nine first-innings wickets available (Dwayne Smith, brought in to stiffen the batting, succeeded only in stiffening his rib muscles while bowling and spent the innings undergoing the appropriate scans), took over from Hoggard. Andy Flintoff bull-charged in from the pavilion once it was clear that Harmison needed some time to draw breath and then rekindle the flame.
Michael Vaughan used him cleverly. A second spell brought its dividends, with Sylvester Joseph, the right-handed middle-order player converted to opener, edging low to the Geraint Jones behind the stumps - Harmison's 100th Test wicket - and Ramnaresh Sarwan suffering a breathtaking catch by Ian Bell in the gully.
Lara eschewed a nightwatchman and came in to face the music for the last two overs without further alarm. So West Indies will resume on 84 for two with Lara just off the mark and Gayle having hit 12 fours in his 59 from 47 balls. Unless the weather intervenes the prognosis for Sunday play is not good.
From Hoggard's opening over of West Indies' first innings to the incompetent piece of running between the wickets that finished things, England gave a performance as near to faultless as it is reasonable to expect.
The bowling was hostile and on the mark, the ground fielding superb, and the catching magnificent, none better all summer than Bell's snaffle and earlier a one-handed diving effort by Rob Key that saw the end of the Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
It was the emergence of Harmison from a dormant period after the deeds of the winter and the first part of the summer that provided the focal point of the day. The signs had been there during the second innings in the previous Test at Old Trafford, when he took four wickets, but this was destructive bowling from first to last.
Sometimes it takes only one delivery for a bowler to know he is on song, and Harmison's opening ball was inch perfect in line and length, rattling the splice on Joseph's bat. Inside his first four overs, Gayle had been caught down the leg side off his glove and Joseph dispatched by a straightforward catch in the gully.
Later, while Lara took his backlift ever higher so that it became a danger to the Heathrow flightpath, and blazed 14 boundaries as his personal defiance, Dwayne Bravo was suckered on the hook, the diminutive wicket-keeper Carlton Baugh was comfortably taken at third slip, and when Marcus Trescothick took Corey Collymore at first slip, Harmison had his first five-wicket haul at home, his third against West Indies and fourth of his career.
Lara, mishooking finally to long leg was the cherry on the cake, in Harmison's final figures of six for 46, his second best after the memorable seven for 12 in Jamaica earlier in the year.
Only for the first 15 minutes of the day, when the bowlers had a new ball in their hand and Flintoff and Jones, not out overnight, had been dismissed inside four overs without adding to their totals, were West Indies in the hunt.
Maybe complacency crept in. If so they suffered for their thoughts.
First Giles and Hoggard, with a mixture of solid defence and robust strokes added 87 for the eighth wicket, Giles completing his second Test match half-century and Hoggard with his Test best.
Then Harmison struck the ball so cleanly that his unbeaten 36, equalling the highest of his first-class career, contained three huge sixes and three further boundaries. The last three wickets had added 149 and taken the game away from West Indies.
Scoreboard
(at the close of play on the second day of the fourth and final test)
ENGLAND: first innings (overnight 313-5)
M.Trescothick c Sarwan b Edwards 30
A.Strauss c Edwards b Lawson 14
R.Key c Baugh b Bravo 10
M.Vaughan c Lara b Bravo 66
I.Bell c Baugh b Lawson 70
A.Flintoff c Lawson b Edwards 72
G.Jones c Sarwan b Collymore 22
A.Giles c Lara b Bravo 52
M.Hoggard c Joseph b Lawson 38
S.Harmison not out 36
J.Anderson b Gayle 12
Extras (b-5 lb-21 w-5 nb-17) 48
Total (all out, 123.2 overs) 470
Fall of wickets: 1-51, 2-64, 3-64, 4-210, 5-236, 6-313, 7-321, 8-408, 9-410, 10-470.
Bowling: Edwards 19-4-64-2 (nb-6 w-2), Collymore 23-8-58-1 (nb-4), Lawson 24-3-115-3 (nb-4 w-1), Bravo 29-4-117-3 (nb-3 w-1), Smith 14-4-50-0 (w-1), Gayle 7.2-2-18-1, Sarwan 7-0-22-0.
WEST INDIES: first innings:
C.Gayle c Jones b Harmison 12
S.Joseph c Giles b Harmison 9
R.Sarwan c Strauss b Flintoff 2
B.Lara c Bell b Harmison 79
S.Chanderpaul c Key b Hoggard 14
D.Bravo c Jones b Harmsion 16
C.Baugh c Strauss b Harmison 6
C.Collymore c Trescothick b Harmison 4
F.Edwards run out (Hoggard) 0
J.Lawson not out 3
D.Smith absent hurt
Extras (lb-7) 7
Total (for nine wickets, 36.5 overs) 152
Fall of wickets: 1-19, 2-22, 3-26, 4-54, 5-101, 6-118, 7-136, 8-149, 9-152.
Bowling: Hoggard 9-2-31-1, Harmison 13-1-46-6, Flintoff 8-1-32-1, Anderson 6.5-0-36-0.
WEST INDIES: second innings (following on)
C.Gayle not out 59
S.Joseph c Jones b Harmison 15
R.Sarwan c Bell b Harmison 7
B.Lara not out 1 Extras (lb-1 nb-1) 2
Total (for two wickets, 15 overs) 84
Fall of wickets: 1-73, 2-81.
Bowling (to date): Hoggard 2-0-28-0, Harmison 4-0-13-2, Giles 4-0-16-0, Flintoff 3-0-19-0 (nb-1), Anderson 2-0-7-0.
