Windies trampled at The Oval

LONDON: Steve Harmison enjoyed a dream day as England trampled over a woeful West Indies yesterday to move within sight of a crushing victory in the fourth cricket Test at The Oval. The gangling fast bowler, who had struggled so far in the series to rediscover his devastating form of earlier in the year in the Caribbean, reaped a combined harvest of eight wickets for 60 runs having enjoyed himself with the bat earlier in the day. His Test-best innings of 36 not out had embarrassed dispirited opponents in lifting England’s first innings total to 470. On the first pitch of the series that favoured his type of bowling, Harmison then tore through the West Indies first innings with figures of six for 46 as only Brian Lara stood firm with a cavalier 79 out of a total of 152 off 36.5 overs. The West Indies captain found himself back in the middle just before the close when Harmison snared two more victims to leave the visitors at 84 for two going into the third day, still needing 234 runs to make England bat again after Michael Vaughan enforced the follow-on.

Injury has also been added to insult as Dwayne Smith suffered a serious side strain while bowling. He could not bat in the first innings and his status for the second innings remains unclear. Chris Gayle resumes today with his captain, having provided the few West Indian fans in another capacity crowd with something to cheer about. In racing to 59 —  his fourth half-century of the series —  the swashbuckling left-hander made Test history in crashing all six deliveries of Matthew Hoggard’s second over for boundaries. Yet the spectacle offered only a temporary escape from the general depression created by a team that lost the stomach for a fight after an encouraging start to the day. Most fans filling the ground before the start of play were expecting a feast from Andrew Flintoff, who resumed on 72 with England at 313 for five. But neither he nor overnight partner Geraint Jones could deliver this time around. Both failed to add to their overnight scores, Jones edging the fifth ball of the day to Ramnaresh Sarwan at second slip to depart for 22, while Jermaine Lawson took an excellent catch, slightly injuring himself in the process of leaping backwards at mid-on to take the catch when Flintoff mistimed a pull off Fidel Edwards.

Those successes should have been enough to lift the West Indies. Yet in a display that was probably more dispiriting than many of the other sub-standard efforts in this series, they offered more than just a helping hand as Ashley Giles and Hoggard smashed 87 runs for the eighth wicket, after which the last pair of Harmison and James Anderson plundered another 60 at a run-a-minute. Chances, as usual, were put down. Wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh dropped both Giles and Hoggard, while Lara also missed the opportunity to remove Hoggard via a catch at first slip. It was especially rough justice on Lawson, the suffering bowler on all three occasions, after his earlier effort in the field. Giles reached 52 —  equalling his Test best —  with eight boundaries before Lara made amends at slip when he edged another drive off Dwayne Bravo, while Hoggard’s 38, his topscore in Test cricket, was ended by a catch at cover by Sylvester Joseph off Lawson. The West Indies’ players already looked a broken lot in the midst of that resistance, and the situation deteriorated even further when Harmison crashed three huge sixes in reaching 36.

In getting to 12 before being bowled by Gayle, Anderson ensured that the England innings became only the 10th in Test history in which all eleven in the order got to double figures. Brimming with confidence after his batting feats, Harmison was quickly into the thick of battle with the ball. Gayle fended off a lifting delivery to give a leg-side catch to wicketkeeper Jones, while opening partner Joseph failed to cover another short ball and Giles took the simple catch at gully to reduce the West Indies to 22 for two. Four runs later, Sarwan’s susceptibility to short-pitched deliveries was again exposed and Andrew Strauss made no mistake with the catch at second slip, leaving Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul to try to plug the holes in a sinking ship. But a superb diving catch by Robert Key at backward square-leg removed Chanderpaul immediately after tea when he hooked at Hoggard and at 54 for four, it was all left to Lara to try to save face.

Fortunate to get the benefit of two confident leg before wicket appeals, he made the most of his luck with a dazzling series of flashing drives, cuts and pulls, racing to his 46th half-century in Tests off 69 balls with nine fours. Along the way he lost Bravo, who got carried away in a 47-run partnership in attempting to pull a Harmison bouncer that only succeeded in offering a skied catch to Jones. Baugh perished meekly in guiding a Harmison delivery to third slip and thereafter the only issue was how long Lara could hold out with the tail. Harmison completed a five-wicket haul with the wicket of Collymore and, fittingly, ended Lara’s resistance when a top-edged hook found Ian Bell waiting at long-leg. Given the general theme of chaos and senselessness that has defined the West Indies during the series, it seemed appropriate that the innings ended with the last pair hesitating over a regulation single, giving Hoggard enough time to run out Edwards with a direct hit to the non-striker’s end.

Put in again under greying skies, Gayle set about the bowlers as if there was no tomorrow. His record-breaking assault in the over off Hoggard was the accelerator that sped him to 50 off just 36 balls with 11 fours. Joseph hoisted Giles for six over long-on, but was again undone by pace and bounce, edging the first ball of a second spell to the wicketkeeper to give Harmison his 100th Test wicket. Bell, one of the heroes with the bat on the opening day, then put the seal on a fine day for England with a stunning catch at gully, leaping goalkeeper-style to his left to clutch on to a fierce slash by Sarwan off Harmison. Even with Lara still there and Gayle well set, it seems nothing, save for the weather, can prevent this rampant England team from completing victory —  and the much-desired whitewash —  on the third day. (CMC)