James Anderson produces show of his rapidly depleting gift as England end West Indies series on high

England (277 & 361-5d) beat West Indies (154 & 252) by 232 runs

James Anderson was England’s star performer on day four (Getty Images)

A resounding and convincing victory for England, one sealed with a day to spare, and yet which would have counted for a lot more had they not already been beaten with a game to spare. James Anderson was the star performer on day four, although even his scintillating burst with the new ball was tinged with a certain nostalgia. This could well be his last overseas Test, and with every passing game comes the knowledge that his is a remarkable and yet rapidly depleting gift.

The blonde highlights may have faded to grey, and the brow may have a few more furrows in it than when he first emerged almost two decades ago, all skittish energy and wobbling promise. But there are still few better at knocking over a flimsy top order with a new Dukes ball: especially a top order facing an impossible target at the end of a long and wearying series. Three wickets in his first 19 balls set the West Indies on a downward spiral that even an impulsive lower-order rearguard could only slow rather than arrest.

Certainly from 10-3 and 31-4 chasing 485 in a dead rubber, there was every chance the home side could simply have collapsed like one of the thousands of deckchairs studding St Lucia’s beach resorts and pool decks. It spoke to the character of this West Indies team, then, that even in a lost cause and without their captain, they found the resolve to take the game late into the day and, thanks largely to the indomitable Roston Chase, give the scoreline a patina of respectability.

Given their capitulations in Barbados and Antigua, England could certainly learn a thing or two from their hosts. Indeed, over the series as a whole they have received a fairly comprehensive schooling in all aspects of the game, from seam bowling to strategy, shot selection to player selection, and even if the performance here was much improved it remains to be seen whether the broader lesson will be heeded. Winning overseas demands a clear and coherent plan into which everyone buys. Not a free-for-all in which individuals are left to their own devices and the score simply totalled up at the end.

James Anderson and Mark Wood celebrate the wicket of Alzarri Joseph (AP)

And so even if the circumstances of this consolation win whiffed just a little of red herring, there were nonetheless modest and humble signs of the remedies England will need to make if they are to prosper in this summer’s Ashes and beyond. The ability to tough it out with the bat and make big scores even when the technique is a little awry, as Joe Root did here, making an overnight 111 that he extended to 122 before being caught at mid-wicket to hasten the declaration.

Taking your catches: Moeen Ali took a wonderful effort in Anderson’s first over, leaping to his right at gully and plucking the ball out of the air one-handed, his toes en pointe like a ballerina. By contrast, Jos Buttler dropped another sitter in the slips, this time off Stuart Broad, and the fact that he was hauled out of the cordon not long afterwards suggested that Root has finally lost patience with a fielder who looks far less assured without the benefit of padded leather.

Variety of attack: Mark Wood again displayed the virtue of that here, and even if he lacked the bold shock of his opening spell on Sunday, he again bowled with aggression and pace that touched 93mph. Bowlers don’t simply take wickets for themselves: whether by drying up runs, messing with batsmen’s footwork or getting into their heads, they can create openings for team-mates simply by disrupting the velvet flow for which all batsmen strive.

Mark Wood celebrates England's win over West Indies (AP)

With Keemo Paul absent following his quadricep injury on Sunday – an injury that is also likely to put him out of the forthcoming one-day international series – England only had nine wickets to take, or eight if you exclude the farcical third run that saw Shimron Hetmyer caught napping and run out by a foot after a powerful throw by Joe Denly from the boundary. But they were made to work by a spirited rearguard from the West Indies tail, anchored by the unheralded Chase, who followed his eight wickets in Barbados with an innings of controlled aggression that reached 98 before the fall of the ninth wicket seemed to bring his gallant pursuit of a century to an agonising close.

Except there was one final twist in the series. It was Paul, gingerly hobbling to the wicket to try and see his team-mate to three figures. And after blocking out the last ball of the over from Ben Stokes, Chase cut Denly to the backward point boundary to bring up his fifth century in just 29 Tests: a rate far surpassing any of England’s batsmen bar Root, and a testament to a cricketer that, like this West Indies team, has made himself into more than the sum of his parts.

Perhaps the most newsworthy non-cricketing incident of the game, meanwhile, was the exchange between Shannon Gabriel and Joe Root on the third afternoon, when Root reacted to an apparent homophobic comment by replying: “Don’t use it as an insult. There’s nothing wrong with being gay.” Gabriel has been charged by the ICC as a result of the altercation, and it is a reminder that for all their faults as a cricket team, this remains an England side full of decent human beings. In a way, that’s just as important.