A superb century by Virender Sehwag and the steady hand of skipper Rahul Dravid combined to give India the early grip on the second Test against the West Indies in St Lucia on Saturday.
Sehwag played an innings of controlled aggression to slam 180 from 190 balls and gave India a blazing start while Dravid's composed 95 not out was instrumental in the visitors regaining their stride after a few minor hiccups.
At close on the opening day, at the Beausejour stadium, India were healthily placed at 361 for four, but will rely on their captain playing a marathon innings to consolidate the advantage.
Mohammad Kaif was unbeaten on 18 at the other end.
Pedro Collins reopened a few old scars with his nagging left-arm seamers to pick all the four wickets to fall and was key to the hosts staying in the match after Sehwag had blasted them out in the morning session.
Sehwag smashed 20 fours and two sixes before falling to a return catch through a leading edge.
The right-handed opener narrowly missed out on the unique record of scoring a hundred before lunch on the opening day of a Test but his knock exposed Brian Lara's wisdom to go in with an all-seam attack on a feather bed of a track.
It was also Sehwag's 12th century in Tests and second against the West Indies.
Amazingly, the last eight of his three-figure knocks have been 150-plus scores, beginning with the cavalier 195 he made - also on the opening day - of the Melbourne Test against Australia in 2003-04.
The Delhi batsman put on 159 runs for the opening stand with Wasim Jaffer and added another 139 runs with Dravid for the fourth wicket.
Dravid has so far faced 158 balls and hit 12 boundaries.
Collins picked nine wickets in three Tests against the Indians on their previous visit to the Caribbean in 2002 and also set up the series-clinching Test win for his team at Kingston on that tour.
Today, he bowled the same teasing line and the Indians seemed intent on obliging him all over again.
Jaffer, double centurion in the first Test, played the supporting role to perfection before fending at an away delivery from Collins to be caught at slip for 43.
VVS Laxman, who shone in the 2002 series, flashed at a wide delivery to be out for a 10-ball duck.
Collins, who was named in the squad only because his half-brother Fidel Edwards was injured, then had his prized scalp of Sehwag by squaring him up with a short delivery.
Yuvraj Singh played all over an incoming delivery and was bowled for two from 16 balls.
Sehwag took the drinks break in the morning session on 65 runs, scored off 38 balls, and looked on course to erase Viv Richards's record for the fastest century, scored off 56 balls, from the record books.He missed it, but then looked almost certain to overtake Kapil Dev and Mohammad Azharuddin, who hold the Indian record of least number of balls (74) for a Test century.
Kapil Dev did his act against Sri Lanka in 1986-87 while Azhar's blitzkrieg erupted against South Africa in Kolkatta in 1996-97.
Having missed that also, Sehwag looked good to join an elite list comprising Victor Trumper, Charles McCartney, Donald Bradman and Majid Khan, who all scored a century in the opening session of a Test match.
He needed seven from the final over before the break from Corey Collymore. He upper-cut a four, took a single and finally needed just two runs to reach the landmark off the final delivery. He drove it to mid-off, took a quick single and kept going past the non-striker's end when a quick look back would have given him another run as the ball had gone past the stumps for an overthrow.
The right-hander got his century off the third ball of the afternoon session.
It took him a mere 78 balls; it was laced with 15 fours and two sixes.
Earlier, Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bat on a featherbed of a track.
Irfan Pathan, who was rested for first Test, returned to the team to replace the injured S Sreesanth in the only change in the Indian team.
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