India go 1-0 up after hard-fought win
An Indian side sans five first choice players came out victorious in a hard-fought first test at Sabina Park by 63 runs as they required a little more than a session to knock over the remaining seven wickets on the fourth day. The pitch continued to give the batsmen a torrid time with up and down bounce, to chase down 326 the West Indies batsmen needed to be far stronger technically as well as mentally.
Chances of a West Indian fight back evaporated only after five overs had been bowled in the morning session when Praveen Kumar hit Darren Bravo’s exposed leg stump to start the slump. The other overnight batsman, Shivnarine Chanderpaul who had to bat major part of the day to get his team near the 326 mark followed Bravo to the pavilion soon after, Praveen once again produced the goods. The two crippling blows left the home team with a mountain to climb, in the end they failed to reach even the base camp.
Birthday boy, Carlton Baugh did not get any chance to celebrate, Harbhajan fast off-break had him caught by close-in Kohli for a duck. In came, Darren Sammy and the first ball he faced from the off-spinner reared from a length to hit him on the fore-arm. Realizing that there was no point hanging around, he targeted Harbhajan smashing him for three consecutive sixes, one nearly landed on the roof. The beleaguered captain was trying to undo the damage caused by his dropped catch off Dravid when the centurion in India’s second innings had made only six. However, that did not last long as Amit Mishra had him caught in the covers. From the overnight 131 for three with two well settled batsmen at the crease, the Windies were reeling at 188 for 8 when a Mishra delivery skidded along the ground to trap Brendan Nash plumb in front.
In spite of the fact that the pitch was very difficult to bat on and the Indian bowlers stuck to the task very well, West Indian batsmen did not apply themselves. Right from the time Adrian Barath literally threw his wicket away last evening, the short-selection of the home batsmen was not up to the mark. That was proved by Ravi Rampaul and Fidel Edwards in the 35 run ninth wicket partnership; the former was particularly impressive in his 34 that was punctuated by six boundaries and a beautifully crafted inside out six. He feel to an unplayable delivery from Ishant Sharma minutes before Lunch but Bishoo survived till the break to drag the match into the second session.
Throughout the first session the hosts suffered sue to lack of a substantial partnership from the regular batters, the last two partnerships though were a good exhibition of defiant batting. Bishoo like Rampaul scored freely and added some consolation runs for the last wicket. But, the task at hand was way too beyond the means of the tail-enders as they fell short by 63 runs, India took lead in the three match series. India can take heart from the performance of pacers, especially debutant Praveen Kumar who despite the problems of running on to the pitch picked up six wickets in the match.
This, however, wouldn’t have been possible for the visitors without the master-class ton from Rahul Dravid on day three and not to forget, the vital 146 run stand between Harbhajan and Suresh Raina on the opening day when they were on the mat at 85 for six. Had India rolled over cheaply at that point, the match might have taken a different course altogether.
To compound the problems for West Indies, they failed to put up a good show in the first innings. Barring Adrian Barath, the whole team was blown away by the Indian bowlers. Once they conceded a lead of 73 runs in the first innings, India were always going to be in the driver’s seat and they may rue it given they scored more than the visitors in the second innings.
Day 3: Bulletin on next page
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