Ashley Giles took four wickets for five runs as West Indies collapsed to 336 all out on the third day of the second Test at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Saturday.
England at stumps were 148 for three in their second innings, a lead of 378, after captain Michael Vaughan decided not to enforce the follow-on preferring to let his opponents bat last on a wearing pitch.
First-innings centurion Marcus Trescothick was 88 not out and Graham Thorpe 28 not out, the left-hander sharing an unbroken stand of 96.
Giles’s haul, which saw him take four for 65 on his Warwickshire home ground, came in the space of 33 balls as West Indies imploded from 323 for four to lose their last six wickets for 13 runs.
England, who made 566 for nine declared after Vaughan won the toss, had a first innings lead of 230.
But Windies first change Jermaine Lawson then gave his side hope of a chaseable total with a spell of three for 11 in 26 balls as England slumped to 52 for three.
Andrew Strauss (five) was caught behind off a wild slash while Robert Key (four) and Vaughan (three) both chipped catches to Chris Gayle at mid-on.
Trescothick kept going and brought up an 89-ball 50 with a cover-driven four off medium-pacer Dwayne Bravo, his sixth boundary.
But next ball a fiercely edged cut just brushed the fingers of leaping West Indies captain Brian Lara at first slip.
Next over Thorpe should have been out for eight when he edged left-arm quick Pedro Collins only for wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs to drop the catch, despite getting both gloves to the ball, with England 90 for three.
Trescothick, on 70, then saw Bravo just fail to cling on to a sharp caught and bowled chance with five overs left.
Earlier Ramnaresh Sarwan’s 139 — his first Test 100 against England and sixth overall — was the cornerstone of West Indies’ total.
Dropped on 92, he fell after lunch when he chopped a short Andrew Flintoff ball on to his stumps.
Sarwan (24) had faced 226 balls with 25 fours, adding 76 with fellow Guyanese Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
Giles then produced a classic delivery that pitched on leg stump and hit the top of off to bowl Bravo for 13.
Man-of-the-match in England’s first Test win at Lord’s with figures of nine for 210, Giles (31) snared the obdurate Chanderpaul for 45 having had him dropped by Vaughan at short mid-wicket on 21.
Pushing forward, Chanderpaul was caught off pad and glove by a diving Key at silly point.
It was the first time in 19 hours and 12 minutes of Test cricket that the left-hander, whose three previous scores were 101 not out against Bangladesh at Kingston in June and 128 not out and 97 not out at Lord’s, had been dismissed.
England only took one wicket in the morning session when Flintoff dismissed Lara for 95, the left-hander 20 short of becoming the fourth man to 10 000 Test runs after India’s Sunil Gavaskar and Australia’s Allan Border and Steve Waugh.
Lara (35) appeared upset by Flintoff’s third ball of the morning, a slower delivery that he just managed to jam the bat on in time.
An agitated Lara, concerned about crowd movement behind the bowler’s arm, then spoke to Australian umpire Simon Taufel.
Next ball he drove loosely outside off-stump and was well-caught by Thorpe in the gully.
Lara faced 127 balls with one six and 15 fours, putting on 209 with Sarwan for the third wicket.
All-rounder Flintoff had earlier starred with the bat making a Test-best 167 on Friday as England looked to build on their 1-0 series lead after a 210-run win at Lord’s. — Sapa-AFP