IT?TOOK?INDIA?about 35 minutes into the second session to take the lead in this three-match Digicel Test cricket series at Sabina Park yesterday.
The West Indies started the final day needing a further 195 runs to reach their target of 326 and snatch an improbable win.
The chase ended when No. 11 Devendra Bishoo played defensively to part-timer Suresh Raina and saw the ball roll back onto his stumps.
It was a tough way to end what had been a determined battle by the lower order. The last four batsmen among them managed exactly 100 of the 262 runs the West Indies made in losing by 63 runs.
But as he faced the microphones after the match, West indies skipper Darren Sammy again faced up to the fact that the Windies batsmen had not done their jobs. And the captain seemed at a loss as to what to do next.
Sighing deeply he said: “We as batsmen, when we go out there we have to focus and be more mentally tough; play the situation, think of the team and hopefully we could come out victorious.”
Having already lost Adrian Barath, Lendl Simmons and Ramnaresh Sarwan on the third afternoon, the rest of the West Indies top order did not “play the situation” well enough when play resumed yesterday morning with the Windies on 131 for three.
A sound start from overnight batsmen Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Darren Bravo was essential. But both were back in the Lawrence Rowe players’ dressing room before the eighth over was through.
Left-hander Bravo, 30 overnight, added 11 runs before he got too far across his stumps to Praveen Kumar bowling round the wicket and lost his leg stump. The score then was 148 for four.
But one run later Chanderpaul (30, four fours) also fell. Not quite to the pitch of the ball, he drove Kumar straight into the hands of Suresh Raina at cover.
Six wickets in the match on debut for Kumar was fine reward for skilful swing bowling.
Carlton Baugh Jr’s demise, caught bat/pad by Virat Kohli off Harbhajan Singh, made it three wickets for three runs in nine balls.
The wicket procession was stopped temporarily by some bold defiance from the captain.
Sammy replaced Baugh and proceeded to lift Harbhajan for three consecutive sixes into the towering North Stand. He also added a four past mid-on in his effort of 25 off just 11 balls, that at least spoke to positive intent.
He added 31 with his vice-captain Brendan Nash. But Nash, his form anywhere but with him at Sabina, laboured for an hour before he tried to lash out and pulled a short delivery from leg-spinner Amit Mishra. He missed and was plumb lbw.
Nash walked away with just nine to his name. In three Tests this season, he has managed just 54 runs (six, 30, five, three, one and nine).
At 188 for eight, the game could well have been over before lunch. But fast bowlers Ravi Rampaul and Fidel Edwards gave India some trouble with the bat this time, fashioning an entertaining ninth-wicket stand of 35.
Rampaul really caught the eye with some superbly executed strokes in his knock of 34 off 32 balls with six fours and a six. The highlight was the six, a sweetly hit lofted drive off Harbhajan which sailed over the boundary at extra cover.
Rampaul’s batting is becoming more worthy of consideration as time passes. But not even Chanderpaul would have been able to do much about the snorter of a ball that got him out.
The tall, gangling Ishant Sharma (17-3-81-3) got one to kick from just short of a length, and Rampaul’s left glove saved him from a facial injury as the ball flew in the direction of wicketkeeper and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who leapt high to take a fine catch one-handed, above his head.
Just seven balls were left to lunch and West Indies had practically lost the game in the first session, losing a further six wickets.
But the Indian victory celebrations were delayed for longer than they would have anticipated. It took them a further ten overs and two balls after the interval to separate Edwards (15 not out) and Bishoo who improved on his previous Test-best of 24 with 26 (two fours, one six).
The last pair added 39.
It begged the question of what might have happened had the top order contributed more.
Rahul Dravid had showed them how to play a big match knock with his second innings 112 that won for him the Man-Of-The-Match award.
Dravid was also the hero five years ago at Sabina when India beat the Windies and won the series.
Sammy’s dropping of him when he was six on the second afternoon was one of the defining moments of this game. But so was the first innings seventh-wicket partnership of 146 between Raina and Harbhajan.