Harmison pulverises pitiful Windies

Stephen Harmison recorded sensational career-best figures of 7-12 as England wrapped up an incredible 10-wicket win seventeen minutes before lunch on the fourth day of the First Test at Kingston's Sabina Park in Jamaica.

As the West Indies resumed on 8-0, twenty runs behind after England's lower order had battled to a 28-run first innings lead, all three possible results were still very much in the melting pot - and had anyone suggested the eventual denouement as a reasonable course of action they would have been laughed out of town - either that, or they had been partaking in a little too much of the local Rastafarian delicacies.

Yet the West Indies batsmen found Stephen Harmison and Matthew Hoggard in determined mood and the English fielders at the top of their game. Harmison, a little wayward and innocuous on Saturday night, was a changed man as he roared in from the Headley Stand End.

Harmison, ever-hostile, was complemented by Hoggard from the Blue Mountains end, the Yorkshire seamer taking a fuller approach to bowling as he tried to extract swing out of the new ball. The West Indies top order never looked comfortable and it was the big Durham paceman who was the first to strike, enticing Chris Gayle (9) into chasing and flashing a thick edge towards Graham Thorpe at third slip.

Ramnaresh Sarwan, on a pair, emerged to face a fired-up Harmison, but only managed another complete failure as Harmison squared up the Guyanese batsman and rapped him on the pads - there were questions about height, but not enough for umpire Daryl Harper to have reasonable doubt, and it was 13-2.

Harmison was in no mood to allow new batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul to rest, as his pace and bounce unsettled the experienced left-hander, before he contributed to his own run-free demise by chopping on to Harmison, whose figures then stood at 6-4-5-3.

Yet Hoggard was not prepared to let Harmison steal all the limelight, as he nailed the big wicket, with West Indian skipper Brian Lara joining Sarwan and Chanderpaul in recording zeroes, edging the Yorkshireman to Andrew Flintoff who made a tricky catch look exceptionally easy at second slip.

Devon Smith, a passenger at the non-striker's end through this chaos, then joined it with the cavalry charge back to the pavilion for 12 as Hoggard picked up his second, the opener chipping a return catch that the paceman did very well to cling on to in his follow through - 21-5 and two recognised batsmen protecting the long West Indian tail.

Ridley Jacobs (15) led a brief counter-attack with Ryan Hinds holding up the other end as the wicketkeeper hit three punchy fours, despite being put down by Paul Collingwood - an exceptionally difficult chance that the Durham man did superbly well to get close to - before that man Harmison struck again, a vicious bouncer taking the splice of the experienced Antiguan's bat before balooning up to Nasser Hussain at short leg to end a 20-run mini-rearguard.

This heralded the arrival - and imminent departure - of Tino Best, the first component of the West Indian tail, as England put in five slips to greet the new batsman. None were needed as, second ball, Harmison produced an excellent outswinger to clip the edge of the new man's bat to give Chris Read catching practice: 41-7.

Adam Sanford's appearance at nine led to the introduction of two further slips and Harmison should have had his sixth wicket, but Thorpe put down a sitter at third slip - it was no more than a temporary reprieve, however, but before Harmison could dispose of Sanford it was time for Simon Jones to get in on the act as Chris Read behind the stumps pouched Ryan Hinds for a three-quarter-hour 3.

Next over, as England incredibly added an eighth slip to their short leg, first slip Tresothick succeeded where Thorpe had failed minutes before, comfortably catching Sanford (1) - quite probably the last act of the Dominican's Test career. With a half-injured Fidel Edwards joining Corey Collymore, it was merely a question of whether the West Indians at 43-9 could surpass their five-year-old record of 51 all out at Trinidad five years ago last week.

The answer came in the negative and Harmison recorded his seventh wicket - and career best first class figures - a near-carbon copy of Sanford's dismissal - 47 all out, and a pitiful lead of just 19, with 81 overs in the day to knock them off.

A formality it seemed, and a formality it was as three boundaries, one of them a maximum, saw England home inside fifteen balls - but not before the hosts could record three more extras, the winning run being a bye as Jacobs' tame shy at the stumps missed its target.

Stephen Harmison's figures of 12.3-8-12-7 were utterly fantastic and are a set of numbers that he will surely remember for the rest of his life, and they surpass Trevor Bailey's 7-34 in 1954 as the best figures at the Kingston ground.

With Matthew Hoggard and Simon Jones getting in on the act as well, this will go down in English history alongside the 54 and 61 all out totals of the West Indians' catastrophic 2000 tour of England - England will surely take sky-high confidence into Friday's Second Test at Trinidad.

Meanwhile, 47 all out ties as the fifteenth-lowest Test total of all time, and is only the second sub-50 total since 1955, the other coming ten years ago as England were skittled for 46 at Port-of-Spain by Ambrose and Walsh. The West Indians will need to bat much, much better if this series is not to descend into annihilation - and with Adam Sanford seemingly not up to Test standard and question marks over Fidel Edwards' fitness, their bowling looks less than watertight as well.

Roll on Queen's Park Oval!

West Indies 311
DS Smith 108, RO Hinds 84
MJ Hoggard 3-68, SJ Harmison 2-61

England 339
MA Butcher 58, N Hussain 58
TL Best 3-57, FH Edwards 3-72

West Indies 47
RD Jacobs 15, DS Smith 12
SJ Harmison 7-12, MJ Hoggard 2-21

England 20-0
MP Vaughan 11*, ME Trescothick 6*

England win by 10 wickets

England lead the 4-Test Series 1-0

CricketWeb Player of the Match: Stephen Harmison (England)

Posted by Neil