Sidebottom leads the way to victory but England still need Durham express to catch fire

13 April 2012

No one expected a softly-spoken Yorkshireman with hair from the mid-Seventies and pace to match to be at the heart of the most emphatic defeat in the proud history of West Indies cricket.

Yet Ryan Sidebottom proved to be England's most unlikely assassin.

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Sidebottom delight: Liam Plunkett, left, and Kevin Pietersen, right, celebrate with teammate Ryan Sidebottom, centre after he dismissed West Indies' Devon Smith

This was the expected one-sided slaughter of the West Indies innocents that was merely delayed by the tourists' spirited display at Lord's.

But it took an unassuming recruit from Huddersfield via Nottingham to step forward and show the more glamorous members of England's attack how it should be achieved.

Sidebottom, with a basic command of line and length allied to judicious swing, had proved England's most potent weapon in the first innings and he struck the decisive blows again yesterday.

Never has it, apparently, been colder during a day's Test cricket than yesterday at a bleak Headingley and the spectators who dressed in Hawaiian shirts and bikinis - and, yes, they were male - to 'enjoy' temperatures hovering at the seven-degree mark needed something special to justify their extremely hardy support.

Step forward the Nottinghamshire left-armer, who had to wait 2,200 days to take his first Test wicket since a scalpless debut against Pakistan in 2001 and ended up with eight in the match.

Sidebottom accounted for Devon Smith and Sylvester Joseph yesterday, after Liam Plunkett had finally bowled a straight ball to dismiss Chris Gayle, in between the rain that threatened to prolong this mismatch into a final day.

After hail from the skies and some lightning from Steve Harmison, the West Indies capitulated to 141, five runs fewer than their equally-inept first-innings effort.

It was just as well that Sidebottom, whose haul of eight for 86 was narrowly beaten to the man of the match award by Kevin Pietersen's double hundred, was plucked from second division obscurity.

England's big guns again misfired for much of this match and it was only when Harmison switched to the Kirkstall Lane End and cranked up the pace in a concluding spell of three wickets that we saw genuine Test-class bowling from England's spearhead.

If Sidebottom truly was brought to his old home ground as a warning to England's centrally-contracted pacemen that they had to buck their ideas up, then it was a resounding success.

Gotcha: Liam Plunkett celebrates the wicket of Chris Gayle...then it started raining

There is a long way to go before the Notts 29-year-old can truly be described as something more than a horse for the Headingley course but he provides variety and good old-fashioned workrate, attributes that England cannot afford to ignore.

Make no mistake, West Indies were dreadful. Their performance at Lord's somehow managed to paper over the cracks but here the folly of their ridiculously brief preparation period for this series was exposed as madness.

Defeat by an innings and 283 runs - surpassing the innings-and-237-runs pasting at The Oval 50 years ago - was an indictment of their inability to play the swinging ball and complete lack of nous to cope with the unique examination that Headingley provides.

Yes, they had to cope without their most experienced batsman in Shivnarine Chanderpaul and then saw captain Ramnaresh Sarwan sidelined by a shoulder injury. But those left in their ranks showed such a lack of appetite and application that great figures from their past who were present, like Sir Viv Richards, Michael Holding and Colin Croft, could only wince with embarrassment.

England will not worry about that. They badly needed their first Test victory since last year's Oval abandonment against Pakistan both to exorcise the demons of the winter and give credence to an encouraging start for new coach Peter Moores.

The buzzword in their camp was 'ruthless' and England rarely look more merciless than when Michael Vaughan is in charge.

If Sidebottom and Pietersen led in their different ways with ball and bat then this was the captain's triumph.

The only way is up: Harmison seals victory

A 20th victory in 34 Tests in charge leaves Vaughan equal with Peter May as the most successful captain in England Test history. Yet he was indifferent to the landmark. What means more to Vaughan is that he has shown he remains both the rightful captain and a batsman of rare class, his gifts unimpeded by his lengthy absence through injury.

His move yesterday to switch Harmison downhill when the ball stopped swinging for Sidebottom was perhaps an obvious one but suddenly the Durham man who has caused such consternation with his inaccuracy and mood swings looked like a world-beater again.

Harmison struck the crucial blow when he beat Runako Morton for pace to end a stand of 63 with Dwayne Bravo that briefly threatened to derail England, and bowling in excess of 90mph was then too good for Denesh Ramdin and Jerome Taylor. Only Bravo could escape criticism but even he went down recklessly after a classy half-century when he hit Monty Panesar straight to mid-off.

We have been exasperated by Harmison too often to believe he has truly turned the corner but this was a start. It took Sidebottom to ease the pressure on the nominal leader of the attack in this Test but England know who they will need on fire if they are to defeat better opposition than this.

The long-haired swinger won this particular battle for England but Harmison, at his best, can win them the war.

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