England's implosion is one for the books

West Indies' players celebrating after England's Andrew Strauss was caught out on the fourht of their test match at Sabina Park in Kingston. West Indies won by an innings and 32 runs

England suffered a historic humiliation over the weekend, as it was bowled out for only 51 runs by West Indies at Kingston, Jamaica - a collapse that turned a match that had been well balanced over its first three days into a massacre, with West Indies winning by an innings and 23 runs.

It was the third-lowest completed innings score by England in 880 test matches spread over 132 years. There is a strong case for arguing that it was its worst-ever batting performance.

Its lowest score ever, 45, was against Australia at Sydney in 1887, before touring teams were fully representative. While regarded retrospectively as a full England team, it was in reality a privately organized touring XI, and in any case went on to win the match by 13 runs.

When England was bowled out for 46 by West Indies in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, in 1994, the damage was done by two great fast bowlers, Courtney Walsh and the 6-foot-7 inch, or 2.01-meter, Curtly Ambrose, operating in conditions strongly in their favor.

Saturday was different. Batting was never easy on the first three days, but both teams topped 300 in their first innings. In the first part of the fourth day, Brendan Nash, playing only his third test, extended his innings for West Indies to 55 runs scored over four hours.

Nor is there anything apparently terribly formidable about the West Indies' bowling. Jerome Taylor's career average was nearly 35 runs per test wicket. Fidel Edwards averaged nearly 39. Left-arm spinner Suleiman Benn, playing only his fourth test, was well over 40. Taylor and Edwards were both valued at $150,000 in the Indian Premier League auction of players last week. Two England players, Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen, were sold for more than ten times that amount.

Yet Taylor produced the most devastating bowling of his career. He took five wickets for 11 runs, bowling Pietersen for one run, to slice through England's top order. At one stage England had lost six wickets for 23 runs and was in danger of setting a new record for the lowest score in test history, the 26 scored by New Zealand against England at Wellington in 1955.

It was saved, at least, from that crowning ignominy by Flintoff, who battled for 24 runs before he was ninth out, bowled by Edwards. Nobody else reached double figures.

The victory gave West Indies a 1-0 lead, with three of a series of four five-day test matches still to come.

England's was the 18th lowest score in test history. Only three lower scores, though, have been made in the past 50 years, a period that has seen three-quarters of all the tests ever played.

It was the lowest since England last visited Kingston in 2004. Then, it was West Indies that collapsed for 47. Fast bowler Steve Harmison, last man out on Saturday evening, produced the spell of his life to take seven wickets for 12 runs.

That rout was part of a run of 13 England victories in 16 matches against West Indies. That spell of West Indian futility is now ended, but it remains to be seen whether it can fully reverse its fortunes.

The victory Saturday gave it a 1-0 lead, with three of a series of four five-day test matches still to come.

West Indies has a habit of producing occasional superb performances - such as a victory over South Africa last year and a world-record run chase against Australia in 2003 - but failing to sustain that form.

There is, though, serious promise in the calmly relaxed captaincy of Chris Gayle (not to mention the sense of responsibility it has induced in his batting), in the obduracy of Nash and in Benn's spin-bowling. Taylor's spell may represent a breakthrough, just as Harmison's did in 2004, signaling a run of form that took the Englishman to the top of the world bowling rankings.

England will certainly consider changes. Batsman Owais Shah must surely get his chance, probably at the expense of Ian Bell. Spinner Monty Panesar failed to get anything like the response extracted from the Kingston pitch by the much less experienced Benn.

At least it has three matches in which to recover. And the next two, in Antigua and Barbados, are on islands where it can expect huge support from travelling England fans.