Tendulkar's Day as Windies Battle Back
Sat, Apr 20, '02
In a day of shifting fortunes which saw the great Sachin Tendulkar riding his luck to complete his 29th test hundred, equaling Don Bradman?s record of 29 test hundreds, India recovered from early hiccups to close the day at the relatively strong position of 262 for 4, with Sachin Tendulkar in ominous touch on 113 and VVS Laxman not out on 21.
Were it not for the Sri Lankan umpire, EAR de Silva?s failure to
spot Tendulkar's thin edge to the wicketkeeper off Adam Sanford,
who in the same testing over to Tendulker also induced him to sky
one just over the head of midoff, India might not have been as
comfortably placed at the end of the day.
Earlier, West Indies won the toss and asked India to take first
strike on a newly relaid wicket that was supposedly underprepared
due to prolonged rain in Port of Spain, Trinidad. This decision
paid early dividends as the new Indian opening pair of Shiv Sunder
Das and Sanjay Bangar were soon separated by Mervyn Dillon with the
final ball of the seventh over.
Dillon had Das (10) palpably LBW with the Indian total on 18.
Bangar in his first sojourn as a test opener, didn?t last very long
when, with his score on ten, he played a half forward to Adam
Sandford only to see the resultant edge gleefully accepted by
Junior Murray. Dravid and Tendulkar then came together to take the
Indians to 70 for 2 at lunch.
On the resumption, the spectators were treated to a few spectacular
shots by Tendulkar and Dravid, who set about the task of repairing
the Indian innings with relish. In a session that saw the West
Indian bowlers, with the exception of Cameron Cuffy who bowled
really well and was unlucky not to have taken any wickets so far,
serve up far too many full tosses, half volleys and balls wide
enough of the stumps that Tendulkar dispatched to the various
boundaries at the QPO oval.
Unlike Guyana, where Nagamootoo and Cuffy were able to apply enough
pressure to force Tendulkar into a false stroke, this was not the
case here. The two batsmen progressed without much threat of being
separated to end the session on 156 for 2 with Tendulkar not out 63
off 125 balls, and Dravid not out 64 off 130 balls.
In the final session of the day, the West Indies knowledgable of
the fact that they needed to go all out to get a few wickets to get
themselves back into contention for first day honors, came out with
renewed vigor. Marlon Black, in his twelfth over, induced Dravid to
play around one that was headed straight for his off stump, and
that was that.
Dravid went for a well played 67 off 147 balls, and together with
Tendulkar was able to add 124 runs for the 3rd wicket. Ganguly the
Indian captain, who has been a bit out of touch in recent times,
then joined Tendulkar, and even though he paid a few genuine shots,
never really settled. With the score on 218 and with his personal
score on 25, he was induced by his opposite number to come down the
track, only to hit the ball down the throat of Mervyn Dillon at
mid-off.
Tendulkar duly completed his century and ended the day not out with
VVS Laxman, who endured a streaky last few overs against Cameron
Cuffy, the pick of the West Indian bowlers, who with the second new
ball, induced him to edge one over the right shoulder of Brian Lara
at first slip, who should have caught it, and a couple more just
short of Carl hooper standing at second slip.
All in all it was an adsorbing days play that could well have seen
the West Indies end the day in a far better position than they
eventually did. To top it all the Windies fans were also treated to
the troubling site of Marlon Black being stretchered off to the
hospital in an Ambulance. Hopefully his ailment is not very serious
and he would be able to rejoin the bowling attack tomorrow. The
West Indies would need to fire on all cylinders in the face of a
rampant Sachin Tendulkar, and an increasingly easy paced Queens
Park Oval pitch.