Can victory ever have tasted sweeter? After 36 years of barren visits - including a lengthy period when the West Indies were beating all comers - the wheel has turned comprehensively. England's eight-wicket win owed much to a superlative display by Matthew Hoggard, whose day three hat-trick sent the hosts into a downward spiral from which they could not recover.

Needing 93 for victory England signalled their intentions early, as Marcus Trescothick squeezed the first ball to the rope at third man. Three more boundaries followed before the fourth rain interruption of the day, and on resumption Michael Vaughan responded to Tino Best's invitation to hook with an emphatic, sweetly struck six. A classic cover drive followed, and four more backward of point of the suffering Fidel Edwards, who was then pulled into the stands by the re-emerging Trescothick.
Vaughan fell with the score on 57, caught behind off Correy Collymore, to end England's best opening partnership of the series. An airborne drive from Mark Butcher fell just short of Edwards at mid-wicket, but by then Trescothick was back at his belligerent best, scything Collymore powerfully through cover. Although the Somerset left-hander was caught behind off the same bowler for 42 with England just two runs short of victory, a pushed single by Butcher off a Collymore no ball completed the win their bowlers had set up just hours earlier.

As the day began amid palpable tension, Brian Lara twice needed treatment after edging a lifting delivery from Stephen Harmison painfully on to his elbow. Daren Ganga survived two confident appeals for caught behind, off Hoggard and then Harmison, and replays – of no benefit to umpire Rudi Koertzen - showed the second brushing his glove. It seemed only a matter of time before a breakthrough came, and it was Hoggard who found Ganga's edge, Graham Thorpe taking the catch at second slip.

Hoggard's eighth successive over was the telling one. First, he induced another edge as Ramnaresh Sarwan stretched out to drive, couldn't control the shot and Ashley Giles did the rest in the gully. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the other first innings half-century maker, was plumb lbw first ball to a prime inswinger, and Ryan Hinds hadn't had time to strap on every piece of equipment before arriving at the crease. Hoggard's hat-trick delivery could not have been better. Forcing a stroke at a perfect length on around off stump, it found the edge for Andrew Flintoff to pouch the low catch at second slip.

It wasn't just a hat-trick – it had torn out the bulk of the West Indies middle order. The England team went euphorically berserk, no one more so than the persevering Yorkshireman, who had exemplified his side's vice-like control with the ball. But as the massed ranks of England supporters at Kensington Oval erupted along with their team, it was impossible not to feel some sympathy for the West Indies captain, watching stranded and helpless as the havoc was wrought. Hoggard's hat-trick was the tenth by an Englishman in Tests, and the third against the West Indies after Peter Loader and Dominic Cork.

Ridley Jacobs was again unable to defend himself as Flintoff found a tailor-made lifter that he could only parry to Butcher at third slip. In Best Lara found the partner he needed to hang around, either side of a lunch interval brought forward by rain. Protecting his partner, Lara helped the partnership to 32 before the rain returned, and Best will probably wish it hadn't. His first ball from Flintoff after a 20-minute break induced an edge to Trescothick at first slip.

The eighth wicket fell as Lara, after being hit painfully again by Flintoff, sought a sharp single at the end of the over. Pedro Collins, whom he was trying to protect, narrowly failed to beat an excellent swoop and throw from Nasser Hussain at mid-wicket. Lara himself fell for 33 in the next over, no doubt anxious to keep the scoring rate moving and pulling Harmison straight to Vaughan at mid-on. When Edwards fended Harmison to Hussain at short leg, the West Indies had been dismissed for their lowest-ever total at Bridgetown. It left England a chase that they managed at a canter; for the first time ever, they have won three Test matches on a visit to the Caribbean.

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