Half-centuries from Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo helped West Indies take a vital first innings lead over India in the first Test in Antigua on Saturday.
At the close on the second day, West Indies reached 318 for six, a lead of 77 runs. Denesh Ramdin was unbeaten on 22 and Ian Bradshaw was not out on 15.
Gayle stroked his way to 72 from 91 balls with 13 boundaries and a six to give the hosts a fine start after India were bowled out for 241 in their first innings.
Sarwan showed more patience for his 58, which came off 110 balls.
Bravo sizzled with a fine innings of 68 from 92 balls before he fell to part time spinner Virender Sehwag.
Earlier, India, who resumed on 235 for nine, could add only six runs in 4.5 overs before Munaf Patel was bowled by fast bowler Fidel Edwards. S Sreesanth remained unbeaten on 29.
Morning session:
It took 4.5 overs before a West Indian bowler managed to bowl one full and straight -- when Fidel Edwards finally produced one such delivery -- Munaf Patel played all over it and was bowled.
India added six runs to the overnight score, ending up on 241; the only noteworthy point about the brief display was Sreesanth, who after a feisty display last evening, looked this morning to try and bat like a batsman would, and made a decent fist of it.
The West Indian innings began with 'Luck' nodding first this way, then that. The first ball of Munaf's first over, bowled at a slow 129.3 kmph, nailed a tentative Chris Gayle below the knee roll in front of middle stump.
At the time of impact, the batsman was still on the walk; he hadn't gotten his foot fully forward, and the strike was in line with middle umpire Asad Rauf, though, figured there was some element of doubt, and gave it for the batsman.
An over later, Rauf marginally overcompensated. Patel straightened his line, increased his length a fraction, and got Darren Ganga on the front foot. The ball would have clipped top of middle, but here there was a slight element of doubt the question was whether the strike was marginally outside off. Rauf thought not, and Ganga, who had scored nine mostly through two calculated outer edges past the slip cordon to third man for boundaries (9/13; Windies 18/1)
With the ball moving around and, occasionally, bouncing high enough to challenge even his height, Gayle decided to get his while the getting was good. He had, early in his innings, slashed at a wide delivery aiming for the sky over mid off and managed to pick out the third man fence.
In the 9th over, with Sreesanth going around the wicket, the batsman really cut loose a full length delivery saw Gayle ease forward just enough to get under it, and muscle it onto the roof above the sightscreen. A smashing square drive, then an upper cut over slips, produced two more boundaries and suddenly, India was bleeding runs in the field.
The 10th over saw Munaf being replaced by V RV Singh on debut and the bleeding continued, with Sarwan rocking back to blast the first ball to point, following that up with a flowing drive through mid off and a glide to fine leg for two more boundaries. The bowler was hitting close to the 140 mark in his first over; against that, his lines and lengths were all over the place, and best described aptly, if inelegantly, as akin to a cow taking a leak on a rock.
You had to remind yourself the bowler was raw; he underlined that in his second over, getting a decent rhythm into his bowling, getting his line right, and producing a testing over that contained just one run an agricultural waft by Gayle that almost carried to the man at deep third man. The third over was equally testing unlike his mates, Singh kept it fuller up to Gayle, on the stumps, challenging him to go for shots. Gayle obliged, just the once when the bowler strayed marginally outside off on the angle across him.
Munaf replaced Sreesanth at the other end, and Gayle went back to carve the first ball of the over to the point fence. Thanks to the unmitigated mayhem, the 50-run partnership for the second wicket came off 39 deliveries, with Gayle contributing 29 off 20 and Sarwan, 19 off 19.
The two bat in contrasting styles Gayle picks his spots, then swings through with brute force and total conviction; Sarwan waits and waits, in control of his defense, and gets his when the ball is a touch short enough to force square, or full enough to rock forward and drive.
Against this, the Indian attack began showing more than a touch of green. All three bowlers produced deliveries that would have tested the best length, line, swing, seam, all present and accounted for. What they did not show, though, was the onus to just keep doing more of the same once hit, they immediately altered their line and, in the process, did exactly what the batsmen wanted them to do.
The problem for India here is the low total. While much of the batting has not been pretty, and Gayle was distinctly lucky to be still out there, none of that really matters in the final analysis what does, is that over a third of the Indian total has been knocked back, for the loss of just the one wicket. It's going to take much hard work to pull things back from here.
Post lunch session:
From the moment the Indian team for this Test was picked, the word 'inexperience' has been tossed around, especially as relates to the bowling.
This session clearly limned what that word means, when applied to the field of play. Take two contrasting examples:
V R V Singh and Munaf Patel opened the bowling after lunch. Singh kept things tight against Sarwan and then pitched one short and wide and was cut away for four. An over later, the rookie quickie had Chris Gayle in even more trouble, with the three quarter length deliveries hustling him on line of the stumps and then, to the last ball of a very good over, the bowler banged one short, letting the batsman get under it and upper cut to the fence for four.
Take Munaf Patel: In the second over after lunch, Gayle drove at him with no control against an away swinging delivery, and was lucky to see the ball go wide of mid off. Next ball, he slashed again; this time the away swinger got the edge, and flashed dangerously past slip, for a second four.
A bowler who had been there, done that, would have reveled clearly, the batsman wasn't comfortable. Munaf, though, opted at once to go round the wicket something he clearly does not practice often enough to do well. Immediately, the pace dropped off by a good five yards and worse, two of the next three balls were no balls (again, a very Munaf thing he goes 'no' whenever he goes round the wicket).
Or take the third in the seam troika, S Sreesanth. Brian Lara had just come in to the crease and it is common knowledge he is the kind of batsman you want to keep quiet early, since that is clearly when he is most vulnerable.
Sreesanth bowled two in the slot then gave him one wide of off, letting the batsman hit through and find the fence, even one handed. Promptly, the bowler who has made something of a fetish of his aggression dropped the next one short; so predictable a ball that Lara was in position on release, and hooked the six in front of midwicket.
While on Sreesanth aggression is always a plus for a player, but someone needs to have a quiet word in the seamer's ear about overdoing it. He tends to talk way more than he should more often than not, in the process, he loses his concentration and his focus, and bleeds runs.
Against all of that, take experience personified: Anil Kumble. The leggie got the ball in the 20th over. Gayle immediately extended his foot a long way forward, and slapped him through long on. Next ball, the batsman pushed his front foot out again and this time, picked out long off.
In his next over, Kumble held to the same line, the same length, merely adjusted a trifle to bowl more on off and produced a maiden to Gayle. He then asked for a change of ends, switched with Patel, lined his ducks up and looped a googly on full length, on line of middle and off to bring Gayle forward; the higher loop and overspin got the bounce, the marginal turn away got the edge, and Gayle was gone, caught Dravid at first slip (72/91; 137/2).
The batsman had a huge slice of luck when on one, when a clear leg before wicket appeal was turned down. Since that point, he lived by the sword, and in a barnstorming innings, went a long way towards getting the Windies on track to overhaul the Indian score.
Largely through his efforts, the 100 for the second wicket came off just 121 deliveries which, come to think of it, was slower than the first 50, which took a mere 39 deliveries.
Brian Lara looked like he wanted to knock back the Indian total before tea from the moment he got in, the huge flourish of the bat, the expansive arc of the bat swing, were all indicative of a player looking to dominate quick and early.
That attitude was in contrast to his own reading of the pitch: at the end of day one, he indicated that on this track, you were never really sure of getting in. Or perhaps that was it he didn't trust the pitch enough to play the waiting game.
Whatever in the event, he kept looking to hit Munaf off line, time and again driving hard only to pick out the fielders. Four dot balls later, the batsman got one angling across him, wafted at it a long way away from his body, and got it off the thick outer edge to find Yuvraj Singh at point (18/21 Lara; 159/3 Windies).
Of the batsmen on view, Sarwan was by far the most impressive in fact, the only really impressive batsman on show. He alone appeared to have sussed the pitch out properly; he adapted his footwork accordingly, being either fully forward, or a long way back, and content to play the patience game to perfection, opting for the scoring shot only when the ball was absolutely there for it.
A classic example was the 36th over. Kumble was firing them in, the batsman defended grimly, and on the one occasion Kumble overpitched, latched on to it in a flash, driving fluidly through the wide mid on region to find the fence. An over later, a push to leg off a Singh delivery got him to his 50 off 97 deliveries and to 4000 Test runs at an impressive 40.4 average.
Chanderpaul and Sarwan took the West Indies to tea on 182/3 in 41 overs; a session that the West Indies edged India in, despite the loss of Gayle and Lara, and largely thanks to the fact that India did not have enough on the board to afford the luxury of inexperienced bowlers giving away too many too quick.
Post-tea session:
A distinct lack of imagination characterized the captaincy, and the team performance, in the third session of the day all the more regrettable given that India got the breakthrough they needed to the first ball after the break.
Anil Kumble opened the session with a well directed flipper that hustled on off the deck, beating Ramnaresh Sarwan's tentative push and nailing him bang in front of the wickets in the leggie's most favored mode of dismissal (58/110; 182/4).
Given that start, you would expect the team to have attacked at the other end too, with the only seamer to have shown enough skill and mental strength for the job but Dravid opted first for V R V Singh, then Sreesanth, rather than Munaf Patel who, interestingly, has in this Test been clocked the second fastest of the bowlers, behind only Fidel Edwards.
Dwayne Bravo, who bats in the tradition of the majestic West Indians of the 70s and 80s, underlined the folly of that move, whipping the seam bowlers off his pads, driving him through mid off, then clipping him again through the leg side for fours in one over (the 53rd) as the bowler appeared increasingly frustrated and out of touch.
The single biggest folly, though, had already been committed 48 hours previously when the captain and coach opted to 'rest' Harbhajan Singh, in defiance of the theory that you play your best bowlers irrespective.
That folly was rubbed in by Virender Sehwag, who took the ball in the 54th over, switching with Kumble, and reeled off two maidens on the trot. It was not the dot balls that were key rather, it was what the deliveries did. They bit into the deck and kicked off length, they turned sharply past the outer edge of both left and right hander (Sehwag in fact felt happy enough with the conditions to reel off a couple of wrong ones at Chanderpaul) and, in his second over, the bowler found Bravo's edge.
Which brings up yet another mistake over the past one year, one of the lessons you would think had been rubbed in time and again is that Mohammad Kaif, for all his skills in the outfield, is no good as a close in fielder.
The key point, that Kaif never stays still as close catchers need to, but keeps bouncing around on his toes, has been made often enough by television commentators, print and net reporters, but apparently, Dravid neither read, nor heard, nor noticed the number of chances Kaif had let go whenever he was tried in that position.
He was back there again, while a Wasim Jaffer, a far better close catcher, patrolled the outfield and again, Kaif was in mid air when the ball came at him; predictably, down she went.
Having reeled off four overs for returns of two maidens, four runs, Sehwag adopted the off-spinner's ploy of going around the wicket to the left handed Chanderpaul. The bowler pushed one through flat and quick just outside off, Chanderpaul went for the cut, bowler, keeper and close catchers went up in appeal and Asad Rauf upheld (SC 24/79; Windies 255/5).
Chanderpaul walked off shaking his head vehemently enough to run the risk of shaking his helmet off but on the replay, a clear noise was indicated; the snickometer confirmed the edge, and given the batsman's pads were a long way away from either bat or ball, there was nothing other than the edge that could have produced the noise except the edge of the bat.
Chanderpaul had till that point played his part to perfection with Bravo batting like a dream, he stayed intent on holding his end up and supporting his partner in a 73-run partnership that saw the Windies ride the shock of the early fall of Sarwan, and race past the Indian total.
Bravo was quiet simply magnificent impeccable footwork, immaculate shot selection, and the confidence to back himself to play shots around the clock to speed and spin alike.
The best possible exemplar of his class, even in an innings that was easily the best by any batsman of either side, was the 65th over. Dravid brought Kumble back on, and Bravo greeted him with an outstanding back foot cover drive that left the field standing to find the fence. Superb as that was, it was shaded two deliveries later by a lovely late shimmy down the track as Kumble flighted one, to meet the ball on the half volley and smack it smooth as you like to the long on fence. Having showcased power, first, and then footwork and timing, Bravo went delicate leaning back, waiting an eternity for a ball on his off to get to him, and playing the daintiest of late cuts for his third four of the knock.
This 20-year-old is so good he is scary and he backs it all up with the sort of supreme confidence that characterized the Windies greats in their prime; his demeanor out there is one of command, a majestic assurance that no bowler deservers the honor of bowling to him. (Yes, it is early days and yes, Bravo could with time prove to be mortal after all but thus far, what you see is what you like. Really like.)
Ironically, Harbhajan should have been particularly aware of the irony here the only bowler who troubled him was Sehwag. Predictably perhaps, it was Sehwag who took Bravo out when it looked like a century was his for the taking.
In the 68th over, Sehwag floated one up on full length, just outside Bravo's off stump. The batsman bit, coming down the track to take on a bowler who had troubled him all along; his expansive drive was beaten in the air, the ball spun sharply enough to go between flailing bat and pad, and Dhoni did extraordinarily well to take the ball while still on its climb, and bring it down smartly to whip off the bails before Bravo could recover (Bravo 68/92; Windies 282/6).
Just to rub the point in about the missing off spinner, Bravo took 27 runs off 24 deliveries from Kumble; against Sehwag, 26 deliveries produced a dropped catch, a mere 7 runs and finally, the wicket.
The problem with a four-man pace attack a problem India has faced often in the past, to trigger the idea of playing the extra bowler is that it is only as good as its weakest link. And this attack, on the day, had two: V R V Singh, who is too young, too green, to be able to string enough tight deliveries together to exert pressure, and Sreesanth, who had a personal nightmare compounded by his own character traits.
The seam bowler's aggression is much talked of, but there are times when you need to be able to pull your horns in; to bowl inside of yourself, just concentrate on line and length and tidiness till the tide turns in your favor.
Clearly, no one has told Sreesanth that. He started out aggressive, was mauled by Gayle (29 off 27) and, seemingly without learning from that, bowled multiple lines at Sarwan (15 off 13); challenged Lara rather than test him (10 off 6) and lost the plot completely against Bravo, being carved for five boundaries as the batsman pulled, cut, drove and sliced him for 22 off 17.
One bowler going for 82 in just 13 overs cuts deep, and cuts two ways: one, you are forced to over-burden the other bowlers to cover for the truant one; two, by giving away one third of the total (Ian Bradshaw did that against India, but the West Indies had bowling options to rotate through), you ensure that your fellow bowlers cannot attack too hard.
India was mercifully let off the hook, at least marginally partly through the carelessness of the likes of Lara and Gayle, who had the bowling at their mercy, and partly by Sehwag's spell. That partially covers problems but does nothing to eliminate them; barring a hasty rethink of certain key ingredients, the bill could well be higher than the team can afford.
Which brings up the other curiosity you would think with bowling resources stretched thin; with V R V Singh not deemed good enough to bowl more than 10 overs; given too that there was turn and bounce on the deck, Dravid would have tried an over or three of Yuvraj Singh, who can be surprisingly deceptive with his left arm spin, especially once Bravo was gone.
While watching Ramdhin and Bradshaw play out the final phase of the day and inch their team further forward, one final thought occurred: Even granting Irfan Pathan's less than inspirational form of the moment with bat and ball, throughout the day the Indians lacked a bowler who could shape the ball away from the left handers through the off corridor and, crucially, someone who could bend it back in to the right hander from the angle.
The third session produced 136 runs for the loss of three wickets in 41 overs; Windies go in 77 runs ahead and four wickets still standing, threatening a lead of over 100.
This Test still has a ways to go; batting last here is not likely to be a picnic but when the curtain comes down, the final verdict could well be that this was won and lost in the dressing room before the game had even started, and if that happens, it would be a real pity.
PS: Over and out for the day, back here tomorrow.
More from rediff