England’s 36-year wait for a Test-series victory in the Caribbean is near its end.
Fast bowler Simon Jones triggered another sensational West Indies batting collapse that left Michael Vaughan’s side with the modest target of 99 to win the second Test at Queens Park Oval and, when bad light stopped play 11 overs early on the penultimate day on Monday, England had reached 71 for two — just 28 runs short of victory.
Trailing England by 111 runs on first innings, West Indies buckled for 209 in their second innings about 30 minutes before the scheduled close in the face of mean, purposeful bowling from their opponents led by Jones with five wickets for 57 runs from 15 overs.
Ridley Jacobs and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, for some inexplicable reason elevated ahead of West Indies captain Brian Lara, were the leading batsmen for the home team and the only two to score more than 20 runs.
Jacobs’s 70, which included 11 fours from 92 balls in just more than two-and-a-half hours, was the top score and Chanderpaul hit a pair of boundaries to gather 42 from 147 balls in just less than three-and-a-half hours.
Jacobs and Chanderpaul added 102 for the fourth wicket either side of tea to raise optimism among West Indian supporters that their side could hold on for, at least, a draw.
The dismissal of Jacobs in the sixth over after the break precipitated the decline that saw West Indies lose their last seven wickets for 51 runs in the space of 16,3 overs to open the door for England to secure a victory that would give them an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the four-Test series.
England lost two wickets before the close.
Opening batsman Marcus Trescothick was bowled by Tino Best for four and captain Michael Vaughan was leg before wicket to Adam Sanford for 23, but the light was fading quickly and umpires Billy Bowden and Daryl Harper finally decided to call it quits.
Earlier, England were dismissed inside the first hour of the day for 319, replying to West Indies’ first-innings total of 208, losing their last four wickets for four runs.
Sadly, Graham Thorpe fell 10 runs short of his 13th Test hundred, being caught at first slip off left-arm medium-fast bowler Pedro Collins, who had also removed Ashley Giles also caught in the slip cordon for 37, to end with four for 71 from 29 overs that made him the most successful West Indies bowler.
Tino Best finished with three for 71 from 28 overs, and Chris Gayle bowled tailenders Jones and Steve Harmison for one and nought respectively, to end with two for 20 from 16,5 overs.
Jones dealt West Indies two cruel blows in the final half-hour before lunch when he removed West Indies openers Chris Gayle and Devon Smith to leave the home team on 52 for two at the interval.
Gayle and Smith endured a testing period from England’s new ball attack of Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard, but it was Jones who got the breakthrough to put the West Indies in a tailspin.
Gayle was bowled for 16 playing back instead of forward to a ball keeping low and Smith was caught at mid-off for 17 driving loosely at a delivery pitched up outside the off-stump.
Jacobs and fellow left-hander Chanderpaul, known for their fighting qualities, took West Indies past the first-innings deficit and seemed to justify the decision to send them ahead of Lara when they took the total to 144 for three at tea.
Jacobs played a typically pugnacious knock, driving and pulling with aplomb, and Chanderpaul was the perfect foil, simply prepared to block the good balls and put away the bad ones.
The two had been paired when Ramnaresh Sarwan, the West Indies vice-captain, was adjudged leg before wicket for the third time in four innings in the series playing across a well-pitched delivery, third ball after lunch.
After the tea break, things fell apart for West Indies. Jacobs was caught at backward point fending off a short, rising ball from Jones, but the big blow came when Harmison was brought back for a brief second spell and had Lara adjudged leg before wicket for eight.
From the manner of their celebrations, England knew all too well that they were in the driver’s seat, and once Dwayne Smith was caught at square cover off Andrew Flintoff for 14 trying a cut and Chanderpaul was caught at square leg top-edging a hook, it was only a matter of time for Vaughan and his side to have their date with destiny. — Sapa-AFP