WITH the mercury plunging to as low as seven degrees Celsius at Headingley, yesterday was officially the coldest day of cricket in Test history.

But by the time they had slipped to an innings-and-283-run defeat shortly after tea, a meek West Indies side had still managed to wilt in the heat of England's attack.

Skirting the showers was always going to present England's bowlers with more of a test than the West Indian batsmen, but even the truncated nature of the day's play could not prevent the home side wrapping up a victory that has entered the record books for more notable reasons than merely the temperature.

England's victory, which had appeared inevitable from the moment Michael Vaughan and Kevin Pietersen came together for the first ball after lunch on the opening day, was their third biggest of all time.

More significantly, perhaps, the immense margin of defeat also represented the West Indies' worst reverse in an otherwise proud history. On the evidence of Saturday's implosion, and yesterday's all-too-predictable capitulation, it would be dangerous to bet against things getting even bleaker at Old Trafford if Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan are not fit enough to return.

Selection dilemmas will also dominate English thoughts ahead of the final two Tests of the series, although they will of course be much more welcome ones following the events of the past four days.

It would have been an unthinkable thing to say for much of the last two years, but England have suddenly found themselves in a position where Andrew Flintoff's return from injury could be a hindrance rather than a help.

Freddie will be desperate to play in front of his adoring Lancashire public in ten days time, but no-one deserves to make way for him after a display as utterly dominant as this.

Claims of English greatness need to be balanced with an acknowledgement of West Indian limitations, but after a wretched winter, English cricket is back on the right track. The professional manner in which they wrapped up proceedings yesterday merely underlined the point.

Only four overs were possible before lunch, but they still proved sufficient to remove opener Chris Gayle, arguably the only batsman capable of extending West Indian interest into a fifth day.

Gayle is known as Mr Cool in his homeland thanks to his unflappable, laid-back nature. Yesterday, he was simply Mr Cold, with his detached demeanour suggesting that he would rather have been anywhere than shivering in the middle. As Geoffrey Boycott put it, "He looked like he wanted to be back in the dressing room with a couple of fires on".

If that was the case, then within the space of 14 balls he had his wish as Liam Plunkett's radar finally clicked into gear.

Plunkett has spent most of this Test match serving up a unique blend of devilment and dross. His first seven deliveries could best be described as the latter, but just as he appeared to be hell-bent on prolonging the tourists' agony, the more potent part of his game came to the fore.

Angling a quicker delivery across the left-handed Gayle, Plunkett caught enough of an edge to provide Matt Prior with a routine catch behind the stumps.

Rain, or to be more precise, hail, came to the West Indies' rescue in the very next over, but when play resumed for 22 minutes after lunch, Ryan Sidebottom reprised the form that had brought him six wickets on Saturday.

Sylvester Joseph had clearly not been watching any repeats of Sidebottom's weekend heroics because, if he had, he would surely have been wise to the delivery that dismissed him for 15.

Pushing around his planted front foot, Joseph succumbed to exactly the kind of inswinging delivery that had accounted for so many of his team-mates two days earlier.

It will no doubt be harder for Sidebottom to rely on such a delivery if the sun is shining at Old Trafford, but even if Matthew Hoggard recovers sufficiently to make himself available next week it is surely now inconceivable that the left-armer will be consigned to the two-cap club after spending so long in the one-cap one.

Understandably buoyed by his latest breakthrough, Sidebottom duly captured his eighth wicket of the match in his very next over, Devon Smith driving limply to offer Andrew Strauss a tumbling catch that he collected at the second attempt at first slip.

Further rain quickly followed - a case of precipitation not exactly precipitating the West Indies' downfall - but while Runako Morton and Dwayne Bravo combined to put on a spirited 63 upon the resumption, the tourists' most profitable partnership of the match ended when the former top-edged an attempted pull to gift a much-improved Steve Harmison his first wicket of the second innings.

There was an element of fortune about Harmison's second scalp in the third over after tea - trigger-happy umpire Asad Rauf adjudging Denesh Ramdin leg before despite the ball drifting down the leg-side - but the end, when it came, was mercifully brief.

Bravo's commendable resistance ended when he chipped Monty Panesar to a grateful Plunkett at mid-off, and Harmison ended things with the very next ball as Jerome Taylor deflected an attempted hook into his own stumps via both his helmet and his shoulder.