England seek ruthless finale

Daren Ganga: 'We showed a lot of character and strength' © Getty Images

It wasn't until midway through this week's third Test at Old Trafford that a lugubrious series finally sparked into life. England's effortless dominance of the first two Tests was threatened, albeit briefly, by Darren Sammy's inspirational spell on the third afternoon, and by Shivnarine Chanderpaul's dogged insubmission thereafter, and it took the very best efforts of Monty Panesar and Steve Harmison to put the result beyond doubt.

And so, for all that there is nothing tangible to play for as the teams decamp to Chester-le-Street, there is plenty pride at stake for both parties. England's captain Michael Vaughan may have made it two wins out of two since his return to the helm (and 21 out of 35 all told), but he was rightly demanding more ruthlessness after his team's hit-and-miss performances.

Vaughan's West Indian counterpart, Daren Ganga, on the other hand, would simply settle for more consistency. His side showed their best and worst traits at Old Trafford - the game was won and lost during a pitiful first-innings surrender in which their last six wickets fell for 13 runs, and yet such was the tenacity with which they batted second-time around, with the big-hitting Runako Morton epitomising a new over-my-dead-body attitude, that they fell just 60 runs short of squaring the series.

"We showed a lot of character and strength," said Ganga. "There are a lot of positives from this game that we are going to take to Durham." Among these was the performance of their debutant allrounder, Darren Sammy, who showed strength, stamina and an eye for the big occasion in taking 7 for 66 in England's second-innings collapse. However, Sammy was forced to go for a scan after injuring his groin while batting in the run-chase, and his fitness is not yet guaranteed.

"It would be disappointing after he had such a good role in his first Test match," said David Moore, West Indies' coach. "It will leave a bit of a gap after what he has done for us - but I am very hopeful he will play. Sammy is just a complete example of hard work. If you wanted to hold up someone to say 'this is what hard work can do' [then] he's your man."

Sammy himself told Cricinfo that his ambition is to be "the workhorse of the team", and in that regard he could have no better role-model that his opposite number in the England set-up, a man who is himself returning to action after a groin injury. Matthew Hoggard played in 40 consecutive Tests for England until he missed the Sydney Test in January. Since then he has bowled just 10.5 overs in three Tests, but he proved his fitness on Wednesday, taking 1 for 55 in ten overs during Yorkshire's one-run victory over Northamptonshire at Headingley.

Michael Vaughan in the Durham nets on the eve of the match: © Getty Images

"It was great to go out there and play in a game," Hoggard told The Guardian afterwards. "You can't replicate that in the nets. It was a good workout and I'm happy with the way it's coming out. The only issue is going into the game without a lot of match practice, but It's not as if I've come back feeling like a bag of spanners."

That's more than can be said for the man headed in the opposite direction. Had he taken his opportunities over the past three matches, Liam Plunkett might have been anticipating a first Test in front of his Durham faithful. Instead he has been dispatched to the Rose Bowl to rediscover his form in the County Championship against Hampshire. England will, however, have two local representatives in Paul Collingwood and Harmison - and for Harmison in particular, it promises to be an eventful homecoming.

England haven't quite despaired of getting him back to his best, but it's been a near-run thing this summer. At Lord's he was dreadful; at Headingley he was distinctly average, save for a three-wicket burst to seal the match on a dank fourth morning. At Old Trafford, he started with a memorably desperate first over (that Ganga was unable to survive), but improved steadily as the game went by. By the time the match had been won after lunch, he was pounding in with an enthusiasm that few had witnessed for months.

"He showed more character than any of us," said Vaughan. "I've never been a bowler so I can only imagine how hard it must be when you know you are not at your best. He looked at himself, answered a few questions and came back in the second innings. He really worked hard. I don't like to say he's back to his best but he was certainly back to some real consistency in the second innings."

England 1 Andrew Strauss, 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Michael Vaughan (capt), 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Ian Bell, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Matthew Hoggard, 9 Ryan Sidebottom, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 Monty Panesar.

West Indies (probable) 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Daren Ganga (capt), 3 Devon Smith, 4 Runako Morton, 5 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 8 Darren Sammy, 9 Jerome Taylor, 10 Fidel Edwards, 11 Corey Collymore.

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