Cricket: High Fives for Giles As England Leave West Indies at a Loss

It was all over by 10 past five yesterday. A double strike from James Anderson polished off the last semblance of resistance in the West Indies tail to give England another overwhelming victory, by 256 runs with more than a day in hand. They were Anderson's first Test wickets in almost a year, so little cricket has he played in such a competitive side.

That makes five wins in five this summer and nine in 10 matches since they were last beaten. The more they win the better they seem to get at it.

West Indies were bowled out for 222, no disgrace on a fourth-day pitch offering considerable purchase for spin, enough bite for some off cutters from Matthew Hoggard to go with his reverse swing (until the tinder-dry ball landed in the water-filled gutter of the covers) and a bit of erratic bounce for good measure.

If the vanquished visitors are seeking a crumb of comfort it is that only twice has a side made more in the fourth innings of an Edgbaston Test - and never to win or draw. They may as well have tried to fly to Mars as chase the 479 they had been set, a notional target at best, well beyond England's requirements and West Indies' compass: Michael Vaughan had enough by Saturday tea time.

Just as in the first Test it was Ashley Giles who produced the bowling rabbits from the hat, taking five for 57 yesterday and nine for 122 in the match - the best of his international career, eclipsing the nine for 210 he took at Lord's. This makes him the first England spinner to take nine wickets in successive matches since the Surrey left-armer Tony Lock against New Zealand in 1958.

He is on a roll now, brimming with confidence, bowling at precisely the right pace for his build (shorter spinners tend to need more air for the ball but it is equally easy for taller bowlers to project too flat and fast) and, with 27 wickets, he is England's leading wicket taker this summer, surpassing Steve Harmison's 24.

Brian Lara, the West Indies captain, who once more will feel the pressure of the blade on his neck, must be regretting his "no Plan B" remark about England's alternative to Harmison before the series began.

Two wins for England in this series and Harmison, who slaughtered them in the Caribbean, has taken three of 40 West Indian wickets. Lara, though, has reiterated his intention to stay in charge for the rest of the series, although that may not meet with universal approval: the side responded in lively fashion to dismiss England themselves yesterday when the captain left the field with an injured finger and Ramnaresh Sarwan took over.

They must also consider where to look for a coach of authority to replace Gus Logie, who has the job by default after the Australian Bennett King opted at the last minute not to take the job last spring. Probably they will need to look abroad but whoever takes on the mantle will need diplomatic every bit as much as coaching skills, not least in getting Lara to play for him. The Trinidadian has signed a four-year deal with the team's former sponsor Cable and Wireless, so is not going to give up international cricket altogether, but they would still need to gain his full attention.

West Indies might well have taken the game into the fifth day had Vaughan, and no doubt Giles, not understood - tardily maybe - the personalities of the two Australian umpires. Simon Taufel is young, excellent but reluctant to stick his neck out. Not so Darrell Hair, the man who no-balled Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing, and, more relevant here, once got so fed up with the former West Indies captain Jimmy "Padams" Adams kicking the ball away while pretending to offer a shot to spinners that he began to fire him out lbw. Giles, at Taufel's end, had been shouting himself hoarse as Shivnarine Chanderpaul, kicked and kicked again with impunity, all to no avail. So he changed ends. Three balls and three yells did the trick and up went Hair's finger. It precipitated a landslide that saw five wickets tumble for 10 runs in 33 balls, to send West Indies spiralling to defeat.

Resistance came only from Chanderpaul, who continued his impressive form with 43, and the imposing figure of Chris Gayle. The tall left-hander is too cool to bother much with running, so he stands up and biffs the ball instead. His 82 yesterday, ended only when he prodded a catch to silly-point from pad and bat, contained 15 fours and a six.

On a day when England caught all their catches - none finer than the full-stretch effort at mid-off by Anderson to see off Ridley Jacobs - Lara can consider himself unfortunate. Out to some clever bowling by Andrew Flintoff on Saturday, he moved his stance across towards the off-stump, and was playing himself in when, on 13, in attempting to flick Giles away to the leg-side, the ball turned inside his bat and thence to Flintoff at slip. Unquestionably Taufel would have heard a double noise but the first came not from ball on bat but the bat striking Lara's foot. It was a cruel blow taken with considerable equanimity by the batsman.

The first part of the day was dominated in turn by Marcus Trescothick, who 88 not out overnight, clumped his way to his second century of the match before being run out -only two England batsmen achieve this feat in the last 58 years and then two more do it in the space of a week - and then by Gayle, whose soporific off-spin brought him five wickets for 34 as the last seven England wickets fell for 64. Given that a slow bowler hardly got a look-in during the period it is no surprise to find that it is 20 years since a West Indian spinner, Roger Harper, last took five wickets in an innings in England. He was understandably elated.