IN the last five seasons, Durham have produced more cricketers for England than any other county. After yesterday’s play at Riverside, they’ve also produced the best three substitute fielders too.

Four years on from Gary Pratt’s heroics against Ricky Ponting at Trent Bridge, fellow Durham Academy products Scott Borthwick and Karl Turner became the latest North-East youngsters to make a surprise impact on the international stage.

Borthwick, a Sunderlandborn 19-year-old, took two crucial catches in his role as a substitute fielder, while Turner, aged 21 and born in Durham, secured the final wicket to fall as England took just 22 overs to record a series whitewash over the West Indies.

Like Pratt, Borthwick and Turner have now made a telling contribution in Test cricket before either has made a similarly significant impact on the county stage. Unlike their predecessor, however, the duo will hope that a standin role is not the sum of their international involvement in the future.

In particular, Borthwick, a highly-rated off-spinner who represented England Under- 19s this winter, is already viewed as a possible Test cricketer in the making.

The sight of Durham’s youngsters taking centre stage provided a fittingly surreal finale to a Test that has veered from the rancorous to the ridiculous over the course of five rain-interrupted days.

Less than 500 spectators were in attendance when Tim Bresnan dismissed Fidel Edwards to maintain England’s 100 per cent Test record at Riverside, and while an innings- and-83-run win might have been the perfect note on which to sign off before the Ashes, everything else about this week’s experience has left an unpleasant taste in the mouth.

Durham chief executive David Harker has pledged to continue bidding for Test matches in the future, but if the West Indies in May is the best the ECB can come up with, he might be better to keep his cash in the bank.

The North-East public are mad about sport, but it does no one any harm to be reminded they are not simply mad. They know when they are being sold a dud, and this week’s Test was both uninspiring and unnecessary.

It could have been worse of course – Zimbabwe were England’s original opponents before they were dumped from Test cricket and one shudders to think what might have happened had they been visiting the North-East instead of the West Indies. Mind you, at least things would almost certainly not have required a fifth day.

As it was, England were forced to return to Riverside yesterday in search of seven West Indies wickets, and they duly completed their task in the third over after lunch.

They encountered precious little resistance from a touring side that must now regroup ahead of a three-match one-day international series, but as well as proving memorable for Borthwick and Turner, yesterday’s action will also have pleased Bresnan and James Anderson, the only two bowlers who were called into action.

Man-of-the-match Anderson bowled beautifully as, for the first time all series, the cloudy conditions proved conducive to the swing bowling art that is his forte.

He claimed four wickets yesterday to finish with match figures of 9-125, and his ability to move the ball away from the right-handers proved far too good for the standard of opposition he was up against.

If the ball swings during the forthcoming Ashes series, you won’t find too many Australians queuing up to face him.

He set the ball rolling yesterday when he lured Lendl Simmons into a misjudged clip that Borthwick effortlessly snaffled up in the gully, but it was the dismissals of Jerome Taylor, Sulieman Benn and Shivnarine Chanderpaul either side of lunch that really highlighted his qualities.

Taylor and Benn were both bowled by picture-book outswingers, with both batsmen playing inside the line as they failed to anticipate the extent of the movement Anderson was able to generate.

Chanderpaul at least got bat to ball, but a routine edge flew to stand-in wicketkeeper Paul Collingwood, who joyfully claimed his first victim from behind the stumps.

Collingwood continued to fill in for finger injury victim Matt Prior, but the first-choice glovesman is expected to be fit for the opening ODI at Headingley on Thursday.

Anderson was ably supported by Bresnan, and after the opening nine days of the Yorkshireman’s Test career failed to produce a wicket, the tenth finally saw three came along at once.

If, as seems likely, Bresnan is to be jettisoned from England’s Ashes side in place of a returning Andrew Flintoff, at least he will not be remembered as a wicketless two-cap wonder.

Brendan Nash was his first victim – the middle order man clipped a simple catch to square leg to offer Borthwick his second success of the morning – and two balls later he lured Denesh Ramdin into a tentative prod that flew to Anderson at third slip.

Bresnan’s third wicket was England’s 20th, with Fidel Edwards pulling an ugly slog to Turner, who was deputising as a second substitute fielder at deep square leg.

Scoreboard

England v West Indies At Riverside

Overnight: England 569-6 dec (A N Cook 160, R S Bopara 108, M J Prior63, P D Collingwood 60 no). West Indies 310 (R R Sarwan 100, D Ramdin 55; JM Anderson 5- 87) and 115-3 (C H Gayle 54).

West Indies Second Innings

L M Simmons c Sub b Anderson .......10 (chipped catch to gully, 33bs)

S Chanderpaul c Collingwood b Anderson ..............47 (nibbled at outswinger, 83bs, 6 fours)

B P Nash c Sub b Bresnan ................. 1 (turned catch to square leg, 9bs)

D Ramdin c Anderson b Bresnan ...... 0 (edged to third slip, 2bs)

J E Taylor b Anderson ........................ 5 (beaten by outswinger, 12bs, 1 four)

S J Benn b Anderson .......................... 0 (outswinger removed off stump, 12bs)

F H Edwards c Sub b Bresnan ........... 4 (pulled to deep square leg, 7bs, 1 four)

L S Baker not out .................. 4 (1b, 1 four)

Extras (b8 lb5 w5 pens 0)............18

Total (44 overs) ......................176

Fall: 1-53 2-88 3-89 4-141 5-142 6-146 7-163 8-167 9-168

Bowling: Anderson 16-5-38-4. Broad 5-1-21- 0. Swann 3-0-13-1. Onions 6-0-46-2. Bresnan 14-2-45-3.

England beat West Indies by an innings and 83 runs.