England complete series win

England completed a series win against the West Indies with a comprehensive 3 -0 whitewash at Chester-Le Street today. England have been the better side and played better cricket through the series consistently. Their batsman and bowlers are just hitting form now ready for a tougher series against India.

The Windies lost this Test on the fourth day in the session between lunch and tea. At the beginning of that session, the windies were in a good position, looking likely to draw the Test. In what must be their worst session of the series, it all fell apart dramatically and England stole the initiative and it seemed inevitable that England would win. It is almost like the Windies have forgotten how to win and seem to throw it away just when they need to press home the advantage. They have played well and won a few sessions but they have lost the crucial sessions when the pressure has been on them. That has been the difference between the two sides, as England have shown some indifferent form at times but they have won the crucial sessions and that is what Test cricket is all about.

Chanderpaul again was the stand out player for the Windies, showing great resolve when all around him were falling about. He had an amazing series and showed what a good player he is. Bravo was the next best player but he has to go on and make big scores that will win them matches. The bowling shows promise and the inclusion of Fidel Edwards strengthened the team. The fielding was very poor and ultimately let them down as things could have been different if some of those catches had been held. They will now have to go away and work on all aspects of their game and learn from the experience.

England look to be getting better and passed all the tests put before them in this series. All their players seem to be getting into form, with all the batsman getting runs and the bowling attack looking stronger with the return of Hoggard, inclusion of Sidebottom and return to form of Harmison. Monty Panesar takes the plaudits as the bowler who caused most problems for the Windies and got the Man of the Series award for his efforts. They also have an excellent coaching staff behind them which must take some credit for the success of the team.It will be interesting to see how they perform with the more tougher challenge against India.

The action shifts into Twenty20 and ODI's in the next few weeks. There will be slight changes in both the sides in the faster version of the game. England will have a new captain at the helm, with Vaughan resigning and it will be interesting to see how they perform in this version of the game under new management. The Windies have performed better in this version of the game and hopefully it should be a good series.