August 18, 2000 – When England dismantled West Indies in just two days

The 5-match Test series in 2000 between England and West Indies was a low scoring affair with the visitors won the first Test by innings and 93 runs. England, who were bowled for 179 and 125 respectively in Birmingham, bounced back with a 2-wicket win at Lord’s where they packed the Caribbean team for just 54 runs. The 3rd Test in Manchester was repeatedly interrupted by rain and eventually ended as a draw – England scored 80/1 chasing 293.

The crucial 4th Test match at Leeds began with the decimation of West Indies as they were all out for 172 in the 2nd session after electing to bat first. Craig White took 5/57 in his 14.4 overs and was the destructor-in-chief. English batsmen also struggled in the conditions tough for batting and they were reduced to 124/6 before Michael Vaughan’s 76 and Graeme Hick’s 59 while batting at No.8 rescued the hosts. England were eventually wrapped up for 272 with the legendary bowling pair of Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose sharing four wickets apiece.

Four wickets in an over:

West Indies were batting for the 2nd time in the game in the second half of the 2nd day and were exactly 100 runs behind England. The visitors couldn’t tackle Darren Gough who initiated the proceedings by dismissing Adrian Griffith and Wavell Hinds for golden ducks in his 2nd over. By the time he was in his 6th over, Gough had four wickets to his name and Windies were four down for 21 runs. They crawled to 49/4 before their captain Jimmy Adams dragged one off Dominic Cork having scored just 19 runs.

Andrew Caddick went wicketless despite bowling tight in his first spell of seven overs which included four maidens and he conceded only eight runs. He was reintroduced from Gough’s end which worked for him as well. In his 10th over and the 22nd of West Indies’ innings, Caddick got his first wicket of the game by trapping Ridley Jacobs in front of the stumps. The next man in Nixon McLean’s stay lasted two balls as an incoming delivery crashed into his stumps sneaking between the bat and pads.

Caddick produced three wickets in a space of four deliveries when he recreated the inswinger against Curtly Ambrose. Reon King was good enough to not edge the hat-trick ball despite swinging at an outside off stump delivery from Caddick. The pacer over-stepped on the last ball and had to run in again but on the final legitimate delivery of the over, Caddick ensured he picked one more as he cleaned up King with an inswinging yorker.

The right-arm pacer had four wickets in a single over as West Indies were stranded at 53/9. Ramnaresh Sarwan Couldn’t make any different despite remaining unbeaten on 17 as Caddick claimed a 5-wicket haul by uprooting Walsh’s stumps. England won the game by an innings and 39 runs restricting the visitors to just 61 in the 2nd innings. The game was completed on the 2nd day itself and it became the first Test in nearly 50 years to finish in only two days.

100 was more than enough:

The 100-run first-innings lead was good enough for England to register an innings win over the West Indians. Till date, only eight teams have ended up losing a Test match by an innings margin failing to clear a deficit of 100 or less. The lowest deficit a team failed to clear in the 2nd innings is 46 runs when New Zealand were bowled out for the all-time lowest total in Test cricket of 26 also against England in the Auckland Test, 1955.

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