A Remarkable Series

Nine years ago today at Headingley, England completed a victory inside 2 days to take a 2-1 lead over the West Indies with one Test to play in a remarkable series.

England had been swept away by an innings and inside 3 days in the first Test at Edgbaston, chief destroyer Courtney Walsh who took 5 first innings wickets and 3 in the second including 3 of the top 4 in both innings. Fifties from Sherwin Campbell and Brian Lara and 98 from captain Jimmy Adams was enough to ensure that the tourists only needed to bat once.

Lord's hosted the second Test and this must surely rank as one of the most exciting Test matches ever played. The West Indians finished day one on 267-9 and they were all out on first ball of day two when Caddick trapped Walsh LBW. England were then reduced to 58-5 at lunch and 100-8 at tea eventually limping to just 134 with Ambrose and Walsh sharing 8 wickets. England were looking at yet another Lord's defeat but Gough and Caddick had other ideas and with help from Dominic Cork skittled the shell shocked tourists out for 54. Andy Caddick's figures were 13 overs 8 maidens 5 wickets for 16 runs and suddenly England had 3 days to score only 188 to win. This they did, but only just. Atherton and Vaughan both passed 40 and Cork added 33 runs to his 7 match wickets but Mr Walsh was rampant in taking six wickets and almost pulling off a unbelievable win. 10 in the match for him but England just snuck home to square the series.

The third match was number 100 for messers Atherton and Stewart and fierce royalist Stewart celebrated by scoring a hundred in his hundredth Test on the day of the Queen Mothers 100th birthday. What are the odds? 100-1 probably. This gave England a decent lead having dismissed the Windies for just 157, but a Brian Charles Lara century and some Manchester rain saw the match peter out into a draw.

So onto Headingley went the teams for the fourth Test with the series all square, 1 thumping win each and a drawn match which neither side dominated meaning that it was anyone's guess which way this series would swing next. It didn't take long for that question to be answered though as 3 wickets from Darren Gough and 5 for his Yorkshire colleague Craig White had the West Indians all out for 172 in less than 50 overs. England than batted for less than a full days worth of play in compiling 272, Michael Vaughan top scoring with 76 and another 8 wickets for Walsh and Ambrose. So midway through day two West Indies began their second innings 100 runs behind, and would realistically have been hoping to bat for at least a day and a half and have runs from Lara and Adams to get then up to maybe 300, 350+ ideally but that was unlikely, then let Walsh and Ambrose loose. They didn't reckon on Darren Gough though. Everybody will remember Caddick's 5 wickets, 4 of them in the same over and 4 of them clean bowled with late swing which made for brilliant viewing which was the icing, but may not remember that it was numbers 7-11 he removed when the Windies were already 52-5. Gough knocked over each of the top 4 and had them 21-4 after which the game was over. Michael Vaughan was inexplicably awarded the man of the match award for his 76 just proving that it is indeed a batsman's game. Gough got both openers in the first innings and all of the top four in the second innings and should have been a shoo in for the award. He was at least given man of the series later on.

The fifth and final Test, at the Oval, was won by England, again comfortably in the end, but this one did at least last the full 5 days. A 159 opening partnership between Athers and new boy Marcus Trescothick set England on their way to a decent total, but in typically English fashion this start only amounted to a total of 281. Craig White claimed his second 5 for in as many Tests as the West Indians capitulated again only just scraping past the 50 over mark in making 125. Atherton followed his 1st innings 83 with a 108 to secure man of the match status, then Caddick and Gough continued their form sharing 7 wickets and sending England to victory by 158 runs and with it the series 3-1 and the Wisden Trophy was theirs for the first time in 31 years.

The summer of 2000 saw English cricket on a high for the first time in almost a generation. With Hussain and Fletcher at the helm and central contracts in place, the blend of experience in the batting with Atherton, Stewart, Hussain and Thorpe complementing the youth of Trescothick and Vaughan (wouldn't we hear more about them in years to come) combined with the all round ability of Dominic Cork and Craig White and England's finest fast bowling pair in decades in Gough and Caddick England had a team to be reckoned with.

Nobody knew it at the time, but this series win was the first step on the road to eventual 2005 Ashes success, as England took on all comers home and away over the next 5 years pulling themselves out of the doldrums of the 1990's and rising to officially be recognised as the second best team in the World behind the mighty Australians. Vaughan and Fletcher rightly took much of the credit for that post Ashes, but the contribution of Nasser Hussain should not be understated, and likewise his predecessor Michael Atherton who firstly and most vehemently championed the case for central contracts which allowed this group of players to gel and feel unified under Team England. This summer was the summer that the feel good factor came back into English cricket. Lets hope that 9 years later, on 24th August back at the Oval as we say goodbye to this cricketing decade, that we don't see that bubble burst and a return to the dark old days of the nineties.