June 20: England cruised to victory against West Indies in the fourth test at Durham to take the series away in an emphatic manner. On the final day of the fourth and final Test on Tuesday the seven wicket victory over Windies sealed the series 3-0 for England.
West Indies resumed Tuesday on 83 for three, still 30 runs behind. Chris Gayle was 52 not out and fellow left-hander Chanderpaul unbeaten on 16. However Gayle failed to capitalize on his overnight score of 52, the opener's best of the series. He once more tried to drive loosely outside off-stump against Matthew Hoggard (three for 28) and edged to wicket-keeper Matthew Prior.
With Bravo’s company Chanderpaul once more took charge for West Indies recovery. At lunch West Indies were 131 for four, a lead of just 18, with Chanderpaul 32 not out and all-rounder Bravo unbeaten on 19. Bravo not known for his defensive approach of batting latched on to every lose delivery coming his way hitting nine balls across the rope. In the process he miscued a lofted straight drive and was caught at mid-off to Panesar for 43, and soon the innings gradually folded around the seemingly immovable Chanderpaul.
However Chanderpaul kept on fighting for Windies as he has been doing for a long time now. He was the last man to be dismissed when Panesar cleaned him up but not before he scored 70 runs.
Chanderpaul now has passed 50 in his last six Test innings and has been West Indies' top scorer the last six times he has batted, dating back to the Pakistan tour in December. He has batted for 17 hours and 38 minutes until his dismissal and is the only batsman ever to have gone unbeaten for more than 1,000 minutes on three occasions. He also holds the world record with an unbeaten sequence of 1,513 minutes in 2002 against India.
The stubborn left-hander scored 116 not out in the second innings of the last Test at Old Trafford and made an unbeaten 136 in the first innings of this game. He averaged 148.66 in the current series and rightly deserved to be man of the series.
"The guys tried a lot," said Chanderpaul. "It wasn't easy; the ball was swinging a lot."
Finally England was left with the target of 110 after Windies were bundled out for 222. England after early initial hiccups losing both the openers cheaply managed to reach the target losing three wickets in the process. Michael Vaughan, the England captain, was 48 not out and Paul Collingwood, who'd scored 128 in the first innings, was five not out after he hit the winning runs on his Durham home ground.
With it England maintained its home record of unbeaten in the test series since losing to Australia in 2001.
Monty on the other hand bowled brilliantly for England and picked five wickets for just 46 runs; it was sixth time for him to take five or more wickets in a Test innings. Panesar was also the top wicket-taker in the series with 23.
“I've still got a long way to go but it's been an unbelievable series for me," Panesar told Sky Sports after taking 23 wickets in the four Tests.
"I'm pleased with my performance," he added after what was England's first Test campaign since their 5-0 Ashes thrashing in Australia.
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