James Anderson is best of all time - England captain Alastair Cook

Captain Alastair Cook said James Anderson is England's greatest bowler of all time after he inspired them to a nine-wicket win over West Indies.

Anderson, England's highest Test wicket-taker, took 3-1 on the final morning of the second Test to help the tourists to a 1-0 series lead.

"It was a brilliant performance," Cook told BBC Sport.

"He was the star and it just proves why, in my eyes, he is England's best bowler of all time."

With England needing to take eight wickets on an unresponsive pitch, Anderson not only made the triple breakthrough by swinging the second new ball, but also took two catches and ran out Jason Holder with a direct hit.

The 32-year-old's influence saw West Indies slip from 202-2 to 307 all out, with England being led to their victory target of 143 by Cook and Gary Ballance.

"We should cherish every moment he bowls for England," Cook, who made his second half-century of the match, added.

"We turned up at the ground thinking it would be a lot of hard work on a flat wicket and it was, but when you've got special players in your team they can produce special performances at the drop of a hat.

"I was slightly surprised with his run out and his two catches, I didn't quite know he had that in him, but it was fantastic skill and heart."

England's win was their first in 11 overseas Test matches, a run dating back to December 2012, and comes after an appalling World Cup campaign.

Six of their 11 in Grenada - Ballance, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Jordan, Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali - had not won a Test away from home before.

"That's what makes it special," said opener Cook. "These are the moments you will remember when you stop playing cricket.

"We probably won't remember the scores in 30 years but we'll remember sitting in that dressing room and the effort it took to win on a pretty flat wicket."

Cook also paid tribute to first-innings centurion Root and Ballance, who made a pair of half-centuries.

At 24, Root became the second-youngest England batsman to reach 2,000 Test runs, while Ballance moved to 1,000 runs faster than everyone but Herbert Sutcliffe and Len Hutton.

"I haven't seen young players bat like that for England, in terms of the way they go about their business and how good they are," said Cook.

"I genuinely believe they're going to take English batting to a new level over the next 10 years or so."