News Sports Cricket England beats Windies by 9 wickets to win series

England beats Windies by 9 wickets to win series

Nottingham, May 28: England clinched the test series against West Indies by winning the second match at Trent Bridge by nine wickets on Monday.England cantered to victory, closing on 111-1 on the fourth day after

england beats windies by 9 wickets to win series england beats windies by 9 wickets to win series
Nottingham, May 28: England clinched the test series against West Indies by winning the second match at Trent Bridge by nine wickets on Monday.



England cantered to victory, closing on 111-1 on the fourth day after captain Andrew Strauss made 45 and Alastair Cook finished unbeaten on 43.

Marlon Samuels claimed the only wicket to fall when Strauss was caught by Bravo, finishing with 1-18.

Earlier, England dismissed West Indies for 165 with Samuels making 76 not. England allrounder Tim Bresnan claimed 4-37 for figures of 8-141 in the match, his best performance in a test. James Anderson took 4-43.

The last test in the series is at Edgbaston in Birmingham and starts June 7.

Trent Bridge has a capacity of 17,500 and approximately 6,000 tickets were sold for Monday. But with West Indies 61-6 overnight, many fans assumed the result was a foregone conclusion and most seats were empty.

However, overnight batsmen Darren Sammy and Samuels were comfortable during the first hour and played with increasing confidence until Sammy was lbw to Bresnan in the first over after the drinks break.

Sammy referred Aleem Dar's decision but replays showed the ball would have clipped the top of the stumps, ending a stand of 49. The pair had put on 204 in West Indies' first innings.

In Bresnan's next over, England unsuccessfully referred Dar's decision not to give Samuels lbw.

Samuels slashed a delivery from Anderson just past a diving Andrew Strauss at first slip and reached his 50 with a single off the same bowler in the 51st over.

In the same over, Anderson successfully referred a decision by Asad Rauf not to give Kemar Roach lbw for 14, leaving West Indies eight wickets down at lunch.

Shane Shillingford fell for a duck 20 minutes after the interval when he was caught at first slip by Strauss off Graeme Swann, who surprisingly hadn't bowled during the morning session.

Samuels continued to take on the bowlers, twice smashing Swann back over his head for six in the 60th over.

But he was denied his second century in as many innings when he ran out of partners, after Ravi Rampaul was caught by a diving Bresnan in the slips.

After a cautious start to the run chase, Strauss and Cook made serene progress toward the target of 108 before tea, the only fright coming when Strauss sliced a ball from Sammy behind and an easy chance was missed by wicketkeeper Dinesh Ramdin.

Strauss was caught by Darren Bravo off Samuels at extra cover early in the evening session, but Jonathan Trott, who finished on 17 not out, hit the winning runs when he glanced Samuels to the fine leg boundary.