Giles spins England to Wisden Trophy

BIRMINGHAM: Left-arm spinner Ashley Giles produced career-best figures of five for 57 yesterday as England completed a commanding 256-run victory over the West Indies late on the fourth day of the Second cricket Test at Edgbaston. West Indies all-rounder Chris Gayle followed a five-wicket haul with a boundary-laced 82 but the visitors, chasing a mammoth 479 to win, were felled for 222. Giles, Man of the Match in the first Test victory at Lord’s after taking nine wickets, again earned impressive match figures of nine for 122. Fast bowler Matthew Hoggard took three for 64 to back up Giles.

England lead the four-match series with an unassailable 2-0 advantage meaning they have retained the prestigious Wisden Trophy. Earlier, England were bowled out for 248 on the stroke of lunch after resuming their second innings on 148 for three. Off-spinner Gayle’s career-best five for 34 led the way while fellow Jamaican Jermaine Lawson finished with four for 94. Opener Marcus Trescothick completed his second century of the match before England lost their last seven wickets for 64 runs. Trescothick, following 105 in the first innings, went from 88 overnight to his eighth Test hundred (107) 20 minutes into the day. It was the 10th instance of an England player notching centuries in each innings of a Test. Skipper Michael Vaughan had achieved the feat in the opening Test of the series a week ago.

Trescothick hit 15 fours and a six off 158 balls in three-and-a-quarter hours before his run out sparked a late order spiral. Hoggard dented the West Indies chase with the cheap dismissal of Devon Smith to an edged catch to first slip. Giles then ripped the heart out of the tourists by dismissing captain Brian Lara and his deputy Ramnaresh Sarwan (13), who prodded a catch to silly point off pad and bat. Lara followed soon afterward, given out caught as his on-drive deflected off the pad to first slip. Umpire Simon Taufel of Australia raised the finger but there appeared to be some doubt over whether Lara did get an inside edge. The 35-year-old made 13, leaving him seven runs short of becoming the fourth player in Test history to cross 10,000 runs.  Gayle and fellow left-hander Shivnarine Chanderpaul added 71 for the fourth wicket to keep England at bay until tea. But once Chanderpaul played no stroke to Giles and was ruled LBW by umpire Darrell Hair, the end came swiftly.