Giles rips out the cream of the Caribbean batting

England retained the Wisden Trophy inside nine days when they crushed a demoralised West Indies by 256 runs. For the second Test running, their talisman bowler, Stephen Harmison, who had match figures of 1 for 93, was hardly involved. As long as England can keep him in a positive frame of mind, this is more good news than bad: others are jostling for the wickets he's not taking.

For West Indies and their embattled captain Brian Lara, things may get worse. Given the current rate of scoring, there is little prospect of Tests being drawn if the weather stays kind. For Lara, that could mean the ignominy of a 4-0 whitewash and the end of his captaincy. Though of no wider consequence, when Lara fell for 13, he was still seven short of the landmark of 10,000 Test runs.

The nadir West Indies have reached is truly shocking. Leaving aside Tests in Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, they have won none - not one - outside the Caribbean since flattening England by an innings the last time they were here at Edgbaston in 2000. In that time they have played 21, drawn three ... and lost 18.

Today it was Ashley Giles's turn as England's hero again. After a consummate contribution from Freddie Flintoff on Friday, Giles ripped out the cream of the Caribbean batting to keep England marching on towards a summer's haul of seven Test wins. West Indian batsmanship has not declined at the alarming rate of its bowling, and few would argue with the quality of this five-for: Sarwan, Lara, Chanderpaul, Bravo and Gayle.

England strode out this beautiful morning in such an utterly commanding position - 378 to the good and just three second-innings wickets down - that it barely mattered how they fared with the bat. More of what had gone before would be hunky-dory, thank you very much, but even lemming-like mass suicide would not cause undue worry.

As it turned out, there was more than a little of the lemming about the end of the England innings, though in the circumstances, censure would be largely unfair. Stern critics might berate Harmison, who clearly believed his promotion to No. 10 meant a licence to play his full repertoire of innovative strokeplay. The dinky reverse-sweep seems a favourite. It worked in the first innings, but trying it twice was pushing his luck. Had it brought four, all bar the purists would have cheered; instead it brought his wicket, and so it smacked of hubris.

More positively, Marcus Trescothick powered to a punchy hundred, brimming with drives and leg-side flicks, his second of the match. This sort of thing used not to happen to England batsman very often. Now it happens twice in a week. And had Nasser Hussain not run Andrew Strauss out at Lord's in May, it could have been three times in less than a summer.

Trescothick was run out by a direct hit from Ramnaresh Sarwan - a rare example of West Indian excellence in the field. Otherwise, it was a case of perishing in the pursuit of runs. Chris Gayle bowled intelligently - he and Jermaine Lawson were unchanged throughout the morning session - to filch five wickets and leave England all out for 248. It was West Indies' best session of the match, though the context of the game rendered it meaningless. For the record, England added 100 and lost seven wickets in the session. To the chagrin of an expectant 14,000 at Edgbaston, Freddie managed only 20.

The notional target was 479, one more than at Lord's. The question was not whether West Indies would survive, but whether they'd survive the day. They fell well short. There is now a break before the Test circus resumes at Old Trafford on Thursday week. But expect more of the same.