West Indies Need a Miracle

That was the thought that came to mind when the West Indies ended the day 37 runs ahead, having made heavy weather of the task of dismissing India's tail in the first innings.

With India on 190/5 in response to West Indies' first innings 167, Hooper started the day with Breese at one end and a pace bowler at the other. The idea being to both use the uneven bounce in the track and to get six overs through reasonably quickly while keeping Dillon fresh for the new ball. Breese quickly accounted for Laxman, his flight and turn making Laxman's attempted offdrive come rocketing back for a return catch. With dropped catches having deprived him of the opportunity to dismiss first Sehwag and then Tendulkar, Breese had reason to be delighted at taking his first test wicket.

India lost that wicket at 204, and only the wicketkeeper and the bowlers were now left. Harbhajan hit Breese to midwicket for a boundary, and almost immediately gave Wavell Hinds at forward short-leg a straightforward catch. Hinds dropped the catch, to add to the one he missed off Sehwag yesterday.

Harbhajan has no pretensions to being a technically correct batsman, though he times the ball fairly well. Unlike the West Indian batsmen in the first innings, he did not seem to think there was any point in attempting to merely stay at the crease on this track. Seeing him attempt reverse sweeps against Breese more than once would surely convinced Hooper not to take the new ball just yet. One such reverse sweep hit pad and then bat, and flew straight to Gayle at first slip. Like his compatriot at forward short leg, Gayle grassed the simple catch. One can only imagine Breese's thoughts as this happened, though the Jamaican bowler did keep his composure.

At the other end, Pedro Collins bowled a fairly probing spell with the old ball. A sharp bouncer saw Parthiv Patel sky a hook shot, which fell short of Merv Dillon at square leg. This would not count as a dropped catch, but an Australian or South African fielder would have converted it into one. Players taking the half chances like that change the course of the match at crucial times, but the West Indian record of losing 24 of the last 28 tests abroad has been built on a solid bedrock of dropped catches, and that pattern continued here.

Gayle's dropped catch seemed to help Hooper make his mind up, and he immediately took the new ball. Dillon worked up some pace, but bowled needlessly short at Harbhajan. A top-edged hook was missed, this time by Jacobs, whose form with the bat and gloves makes one think he is nearing the end of his test career.

After that skied hook, Patel became wiser and never once took the bait when offered the short ball. India could have been eight wickets down with a lead of about 50 if those catches by Patel and Harbhajan had been taken. Instead, with a mix of bold strokeplay and streaky agricultural shots, aided by some atrocious outfielding by the West Indians, the score galloped along. The spring went out of the West Indian fielders' steps as Harbhajan and Patel put on 51 runs in very quick time before Dillon bowled the former with a straight delivery on the stumps.

The Indian lead was 78 when Harbhajan was dismissed and as if to rub salt into the wounds, Srinath then belted another 39 off 35 balls. The pace of run-gathering went unabated even though Patel was stumped off Breese.

As one feared, the West Indian bowlers completely lost the plot when bowling to the tail and practically gave away the match with that huge lead. Dillon seemed to totally lose composure when Harbhajan attempted a few swipes, when in fact, he could have caused the tail to lose composure had he bowled with purpose and direction. Lawson did not bowl with the same pace as the previous day, and his inexperience clearly showed.

More crucially, the West Indian fielding was utterly pathetic, and one wonders what plans the captain and bowlers can ever hope to execute if catches are going to be dropped on a consistent basis. This was a fielding performance that could easily have been bettered by the club cricketers who were doing duty around the boundary, retrieving the many boundary hits from over the ropes.

In any successful setup, good performances must be rewarded and bad ones must be punished, particularly in areas like dropped catches. This was definitely the case during the Lloyd and Richards eras, where players who were not giving their all for the team quickly found themselves out, no matter how talented they were. If the team management does not recognise that the current state of the match owes a lot to the multiple lives given to Sehwag, Tendulkar, Harbhajan and Patel, then one wonders what incentive the Gayles', Hinds' and Jacobs' are going to have to improve themselves?

Though the fielding lapses clearly gave the advantage to India, the saving grace was the fact that Hinds made up for his misses with two brilliant pieces of fielding that saw both Srinath and Zaheer Khan being run out. The problem with Hinds at short leg may well be that he stands too close to the batsman. This may have the effect of putting additional pressure on the batsman, but it also gives Hinds far less time to react to catches.

The abysmal fielding performance of the West Indies left them with 150 runs to make to force India to bat again. Judging by recent performance, it would have been fair of the Indians to expect the West Indies to oblige and quickly fold up.

Luckily for the defeat-weary West Indian fans, that was not to be. The West Indian openers seemed to emerge from the pavilion with a plan to attack, and that was the right plan, although Gayle was an immediate casualty when he chose to play an extravagant shot that saw him collect a duck, caught at third man off Srinath. If Gayle, after his missed catches and failure with the bat, is able to retain his place in the team, it will only be due to the paucity of alternatives.

Sarwan, the recipient of several bad decisions in his career, saw Lady Luck smile on him for once as a clear caught-behind down the legside was turned down. With Wavell Hinds, Sarwan attacked the Indian bowling, and both batsmen assured themselves, as well as those watching from the pavilion that there were definitely runs to be made on this pitch, though it is by no means an ideal track for batting.

The most outstanding feature of the Hinds-Sarwan partnership was the way in which Harbhajan and Kumble were both punished when they gave the slightest room to the batsmen. Suddenly both spinners did not look that dangerous, with the Indian captain forced to keep the close-in cordon to the absolute minimum.

Sarwan hit Harbhajan for two soaring sixes, while Hinds plundered runs whenever the width or the length were offered. This was West Indian batsmanship at it's best. If not in technique, it was certainly similar in approach to that adopted by most Indian batsmen when confronted by Warne and other spinners. One can never be completely effective against good bowling without mixing offense with defense. If proof was ever needed for this assertion, Hinds and Sarwan provided it in the session between lunch and tea on the third day.

West Indies went to tea with the score on 90/1. A reasonable position, with both Hinds and Sarwan looking good for centuries, the former already getting his half-century. On resumption, Harbhajan persisted with his legstump line to Hinds. Hinds attacked Harbhajan immediately, hitting a six over midwicket. But two deliveries later, Hinds lashed out without reaching the pitch of the ball, and skied a catch to Ganguly at cover.

A batsman seeking to dominate an attack and lay a foundation for the rest of his team is always prone to such a dismissal. So, even though this was a poorly judged shot, this is the Wavell Hinds the West Indies needs, not the Hinds who scratched around for 29 deliveries before opening his account in the first test.

With Hinds dismissal, the attacking tone of the West Indian innings could not be kept up, and Chanderpaul fell soon after, chipping an innocuous delivery straight to midwicket.

Captain Carl Hooper, the best player of spin in the West Indian team, lived up to his reputation. With hardly any perceptible effort, Kumble was twice driven into the top tier of the stands for towering sixes. Hooper also put Harbhajan to the sword, and just as it seemed that the West Indies were gaining an upper hand, Kumble bowled Hooper a googly that seemed to kiss the inside edge of the bat on it's way to the keeper. Hooper expressed annoyance, but one could not discern if it was at his dismissal, or at the decision.

Ryan Hinds and Sarwan did not have to bat for long before the light was offered at 186/4, the West Indian lead being merely 37.

At the current time, the match is heading for a comfortable Indian victory. Not only do Sarwan and Hinds have to come up with something special tomorrow, they also have to be aided by the rest of the West Indian batsmen, notably Breese and Jacobs. Difficult though it may be against spin, every member of the West Indian tail is going to have to put a high price on his wicket.

Even if the West Indian batting does come up with a total to defend, there is no Ambrose or Walsh in the current lineup to make the Indian lineup pale at the thought of chasing a last innings target. Having seen the West Indian fielding buckle in the first innings, the Indian batsmen may be forgiven for thinking they can coast to whatever target Sarwan and company set for them tomorrow.

In the final analysis, one wonders if the West Indian resurgence in this match is not already too late. If the first innings total of 167 was not bad enough, the West Indies allowed a first innings lead of nearly 150 when it could have been about 80 runs fewer.

Barring a miracle, we may be witnessing a finish to the test match that was already scripted when the two teams played their first innings.