Rain will not have to relent for long over the last three days of the second Test for England to win it most handsomely by an innings. West Indies have hardly put a foot right, England a foot wrong, especially Kevin Pietersen and Ryan Sidebottom. West Indies have only seven fit men left to bat and they are still 402 runs behind.

Pietersen’s 226 was not only his Test career-best but the third highest for England on a ground where they have played since 1899. Only Geoffrey Boycott and John Edrich, with methods slightly less flamboyant, have made a higher score for England at Headingley than Pietersen, who could make more runs off his own bat than the tourists between them.

For more than seven hours Pietersen punched and pummelled the West Indians like a heavyweight boxer, one very quick of foot as well as hand. Once the tourists had been tenderised, as well as demoralised by the loss of their captain Ramnaresh Sarwan during the game and of their senior batsman Shiv Chanderpaul before it, they had nothing left to offer.

England moreover used the conditions - high cloud on Saturday, still an easy-paced pitch - far better than the ingenuous visitors. England, led by Sidebottom who took six wickets on his return to the side, bowled a driving length; West Indies bowled everything but.

The vocabulary of today’s pace bowlers betrays a lack of grasp of the basics. You cannot ‘put the ball in the right areas’ in the plural. There is only one right area, except if you are as quick as the late Malcolm Marshall. The odd bouncer and yorker, maybe, but only one right area.

Or ‘bowling good lines and lengths’ in the plural again. There is only one good line 99 per cent of the time, and only one good length, especially at Headingley. And that is the one which Sidebottom demonstrated from his opening spell, and which Steve Harmison and Liam Plunkett located after the tea interval, no doubt after strong counsel from the England think-tank. Michael Vaughan can take much of the credit for England’s improved performance. (C) The Telegraph Group, London, 2007

He stood at mid-off in a superfluous sun-hat but his captaincy input was far from superfluous. He is a no-nonsense man, and having bowled a lot of nonsense at Lord’s, England’s pace bowlers did not dare do so with Vaughan in such close proximity.

Sidebottom, after missing 78 England Tests since his one previous appearance, bowled a fuller length than anybody else had done, and swung the ball - the first left-armer to do so for England since John Lever. Others have tried - Paul Taylor, Mike Smith, Simon Brown, Alan Mullally - but they did not swing it on the line of the stumps, some of their fingers tensing up on the big occasion.

Sidebottom, aged 29, is far more settled now than when he played his debut Test at Lord’s and, like his predecessors, failed to swing the ball. He had not taken a wicket in his Test of 2001 but he had picked up both opening batsmen here by the end of his fourth over, doubling the Test aggregate of his father Arnie.

Sidebottom suckered Chris Gayle by swinging the ball regularly away from the left-hander until one kept straight on and pinned him leg-before. Daren Ganga, as if his first taste of Test captaincy had not already been traumatic enough, made the shot-selection of a scrambled brain when, as a right-hander, he decided to pad up to what was an inswinger for him. In his second innings Ganga was at least attempting a shot when the ball seamed across him.

West Indies were seen through until tea at 66 for two by Devon Smith, and hapless fellow for playing his first innings of this tour at such a moment, Sylvester Joseph. They come from Grenada and Antigua respectively, not islands renowned for grey skies and long-sleeved sweaters. It was ridiculous to expect cricketers of such background to play three out of their four Tests in northern England in early season without any practice in these conditions.

Thereafter Harmison and Plunkett bowled the right length and put the ball in the right area. In the first over after tea Joseph drove at Harmison and edged to first slip. In the second over Smith drove at Plunkett and edged to the finer of two gulleys. Runako Morton was unlucky, as he had been at Lord’s.

As soon as Denesh Ramdin was offered the chance to drive, he took it, and Matt Prior took the chance. As soon as Daren Powell was offered the chance to drive, Paul Collingwood took the catch at second slip. The ball did not swing on the line of the stumps more than minimally - other than for Sidebottom - it was just sensible bowling, smart catching and the callowest of batting.

(C) The Telegraph Group, London, 2007

A Strauss c D Ramdin b Powell 15

A Cook lbw b Gayle 42

M Vaughan c Morton b Taylor 103

K Pietersen c Taylor b Bravo 226

P Collingwood c Gayle b Collymore 29

I Bell c D Ramdin b Collymore 5

M Prior b Powell 75

L Plunkett not out 44

Extras (6nb 9w 1b 15lb) 31

Bowling: Powell 33.0 5 153 2, Collymore 29.0 1 110 2, Taylor 22.0 4 116 1, Bravo 24.3 3 97 1, Gayle 14.0 1 78 1

West Indies 1st innings

C Gayle lbw b Sidebottom 11

D Ganga lbw b Sidebottom 5

D Smith c Cook b Plunkett 26

S Joseph c Strauss b Harmison 13

R Morton c Prior b Harmison 5

D Bravo b Sidebottom 23

D Ramdin c Prior b Plunkett 6

D Powell c Collingwood b Plunkett 8

J Taylor not out 23

Collymore c Strauss b Sidebottom 3

Sarwan 0

Extras (7nb 3w 13lb) 23

Bowling: Sidebottom 12.0 2 42 4, Harmison 12.0 0 55 2, Plunkett 12.0 1 35 3, Panesar 1.0 0 1 0

West Indies 2nd innings

C Gayle not out 9

D Ganga lbw b Sidebottom 9

D Powell lbw b Sidebottom 0

Extras (1nb 1b 2lb) 4