Windies hand out shock defeat to England in Jamaica Test
Jamaica, Feb. 8 : The West Indies handed out a shock innings and 23-run defeat to England in the first Test at Sabina Park on Saturday.
Trailing by 74 runs on the first innings, England collapsed to 51 all out in their second innings, five minutes before the tea break on the penultimate day. It was England''s third lowest total in Tests.
Victory fro the Windies came after England fast bowler Steve Harmison was bowled trying to sweep a delivery from spinner Suleiman Benn.
``We were entirely outplayed. We haven''t done ourselves justice. I thought the bowlers stuck to their task pretty well. We batted pretty poorly today and we paid the price. All credit to Jerome Taylor, he bowled pretty straight and fast but we didn''t react well,'''' said a dejected England skipper Andrew Strauss
West Indies captain Chris Gayle, who hit a century in his team''s first and only innings of the match, looked forward to repeating the win in the second Test in Antigua and praised Taylor as well as spinner Suleiman Benn who took eight wickets in the match.
``Benn, with the ball, was tremendous picking up eight wickets, Jerome Taylor picking up five wickets was very good,'''' said Gayle.
Andrew Flintoff hit the top score of 24, but England''s batting was undermined by Taylor with a career-best 5-11 from nine overs in which he was lethal in speed, length, and direction.
There was little respite for England from the other end, where Benn was steady, if not spectacular, and also collected a career-best 4-31 from 14.2 overs.
West Indies now has taken a 1-0 lead in the four-match series that continues in Antigua on Thursday.
Brief scores: England 318 (Kevin Pietersen 97, Matt Prior 64, Andrew Flintoff 43, Ian Bell 28, Ryan Sidebottom 26 not out; Sulieman Benn 4-77, Jerome Taylor 3-74, Daren Powell 2-54) and 51 (Andrew Flintoff 23; Jerome Taylor 9-4-11-5, Sulieman Benn 14.2-2-31-4)
West Indies 392 (Ramnaresh Sarwan 107, Chris Gayle 104, Brendan Nash 55, Denesh Ramdin 35, Sulieman Benn 23, Shivnarine Chanderpaul 20; Stuart Broad 29-7-85-5, Steve Harmison 2-49, Andrew Flintoff 2-77) (ANI)