Intriguingly Poised

At the end of the second day, the second and possibly decisive test match in Chennai is very interestingly poised. After a typically spineless batting performance from the West Indian batsmen, the bowlers, with minimal assistance from the fielders, have brought the West Indies back into the game. After a plethora of dropped catches, the Indian dismissals were a display in irony, with Sehwag, Dravid and Tendulkar all getting clean bowled.

One cannot assume that the West Indies have gone all the way through the Indian batting yet. For one thing, they have frequently dismissed the top order, only to let the lower order add valuable runs. Should this happen in this game, it may be curtains for West Indies in this match and series, since this is shaping up to be a low scoring game. Moreover, one of the unbeaten Indian batsmen is Laxman, who played one of test cricket's greatest innings last year in Calcutta, batting through an entire day to score 281, resulting in only the third win ever for a side that followed on.

His undoubted prowess notwithstanding, Laxman does give the bowlers a bit more of a chance than say,
Dravid. This will be one factor that Hooper will count as being in his favour. The other is the fact that the West Indies, after many years, have a bowler of genuine pace in their ranks, Jermaine Lawson. Hooper will definitely be looking to Lawson to attack the tail, if not the lone remaining batsman, Laxman. The chances of someone like Laxman taking it upon himself to dominate Lawson and making a mistake in the process are much higher than that of the same thing happening with someone like Cuffy.

It may be no exaggeration to say that Lawson has done enough to bring back thoughts of the halcyon days of West Indian cricket, when the team boasted four bowlers of his pace or quicker. Lawson's extra pace made the batsmen play him with respect even on this pitch. Though he was hit for boundaries, one saw even Tendulkar play a few false shots off Lawson. The other dominant Indian batsman in this series, Sehwag, was downright uncomfortable at times, though he did find the boundary on a few occasions.

As expected, Gareth Breese posed few problems for the Indian batsmen. Another pace bowler in his place, Darren Powell, would have given the West Indian attack more teeth. Breese did bowl well, and as a spinner who can bat, he may well have a role to play in the West Indian teams of the future, but to think that he would trouble the Indian batsmen, on Indian soil may be a little optimistic. On the second day, Breese gave away so many runs that Collins at the other end found it impossible to maintain any pressure, though he was bowling beautifully. Only Collins' dismissal of Sehwag, with a peach of an outswinger, finally brought some relief to Breese and the other West Indian bowlers.

Timidness and lack of self confidence could well be synonyms for the attitude of the West Indian batsmen's display in the first innings. On a pitch where they could have scored runs against India's seamers, if not the spinners, Gayle and Hinds played with exaggerated caution. Their approach has been in sheer contrast to the one shown by Sehwag. Both Hinds and Gayle also gave Sehwag a life each, and that will be one more thing they have to make up for when they bat.

What may work in favour of the West Indian batsmen is the fact that none of them really looked in much
trouble in the first innings. Each and every one of them got a start, but fell victim to an attack
Hooper-itis, including the esteemed captain himself. After batting with great purpose and discipline in his stint as captain, Hooper now runs a real risk of reverting to his old self, where brief, flashy innings were all he had to offer most of the time.

Rather surprisingly, Sehwag has gone on record saying that a lead of about 150 should be enough for an
innings victory. Other things being equal, the West Indies will do well to restrict the Indian lead to
under 100. After that, if they bat with purpose in the second innings, Sehwag may well be in a position where he may have to lead the Indian chase for a fourth innings target, something that India usually have a lot of problems with.