Basseterre (St Kitts), June 25 (IANS) India showed fight and organisation as they started their bid for safety on the third day of the third Test against the West Indies at the Warner Park Stadium here Saturday.
They were 150 for two in reply to the West Indies' 581 at stumps, the first day in the Test when a full day's play was possible. Rain had curtailed play on both the first and second days.
V.V.S Laxman (batting 28, 97 balls, 3 fours) and Rahul Dravid (batting 20, 43 balls) were together at the close, having come together at 124, and playing out the last 12 overs of the day without any signs of discomfort.
The batsmen out were openers, Virender Sehwag (31, 45 balls, 4 fours) and Wasim Jaffer (60, 101 balls, 10 fours), who had given India a flying start, putting on 61 at almost a run a ball.
India's first target Sunday will be to get to 382 and avoid following on. Unless they bat very badly, it should not be a problem.
The wicket has nothing to offer to the bowlers, especially those in the one-dimensional attack the West Indies have chosen for this Test.
In the morning session of 150 minutes, overnight batsmen Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Marlon Samuels took the score from 420 for 5 to 536, without getting separated, in 37 overs.
After the break, the action became hectic, as if to compensate for the morning's drudgery. Harbhajan Singh's first over, the second after lunch, went for 19. It was the same number of runs the last five West Indian wickets added after Samuels fell at 562.
Chanderpaul (97 not out, 314 minutes, 216 minutes, 1 six, 6 fours) and Samuels (87, 161 balls, 3 sixes, 8 fours) had added 166 for the sixth wicket. Harbhajan captured four of the last five West Indian wickets to fall and finished with 5 for 147.
Inadvertently, India may have done West Indies a favour by ending their innings so suddenly and dramatically. They have given the West Indians more time to bowl them out when the hosts themselves showed no inclination to force the pace.
It was difficult to understand why.
Brian Lara had said during his pre-match talk with newsmen that he wanted his team to put up a huge score and then bowl India out twice.
Perhaps Lara was keener on sending a message to his selectors: 'If you don't give me the bowling which I think I can get India out twice, I can only play to save the match.'
Or perhaps it was his unspoken comment on the lifeless track, when all along he has been asking for pitches with pace and bounce.
As it turned out, there was no sense of urgency or purpose to the way Chanderpaul and Samuels batted in the morning. They did not seem to be part of a team, which was thinking of winning.
After Dravid's early efforts to get a wicket were easily nullified, Chanderpaul and Samuels did step up the pace a bit: 55 runs came in the middle third of the session, in just 12 overs.
But the next 14 overs saw Chanderpaul score only 11 runs, Samuels 8.
Dravid, by this time, was setting purely defensive fields, and his bowlers were concentrating on a containing line but that was no explanation for the attitude of the batsmen. It did nothing for the image of Test cricket.
There have not been too many people watching the Tests, in sharp contrast to the crowds during the one-day series. The sort of unattractive and aimless cricket as was seen Saturday morning will do little to bring the crowds back.
SCOREBOARD
Day 3, Third Test, West Indies v India, Warner Park Stadium, Basseterre (St Kitts)
West Indies (1st innings):
Chris Gayle b Patel 83
Darren Ganga b Patel 135
Ramnaresh Sarwan lbw Sreesanth 116
Brian Lara lbw Patel 10
Shivnarine Chanderpaul not out 97
Dwayne Bravo c Dhoni b Harbhajan 21
Marlon Samuels c Harbhajan Sehwag 87
Denesh Ramdin c Jaffer b Harbhajan 3
Jerome Taylor c Yuvraj b Harbhajan 2
Pedro Collins c Dravid b Harbhajan 1
Corey Collymore b Harbhajan 0
Extras (lb 14, w 1, nb 11) 26
Total (all out in 170 overs) 581
Fall of wickets: 1-143, 2-346, 3-356, 4-371, 5-406, 6-562, 7-570, 8-576, 9-581, 10-581
Bowling:
Munaf Patel 32-4-134-3 (8nb, 1w)
S. Sreesanth 31-8-99-1 (1nb)
Anil Kumble 47-8-140-0 (2nb)
Harbhajan Singh 44-6-147-5
Virender Sehwag 16-3-47-1
India (1st innings):
Wasim Jaffer c Lara b Bravo 60
Virender Sehwag c Lara b Collymore 31
VVS Laxman batting 28
Rahul Dravid batting 20
Extras (lb 1, nb 10) 11
Total (for 2 wkts in 46 overs) 150
Fall of wickets: 1-61, 2-124
Bowling:
Jerome Taylor 12-1-58-0
Pedro Collins 13-1-54-0 (7nb)
Corey Collymore 10-2-19-1 (2nb)
Dwayne Bravo 9-4-15-1 (1nb)
Chris Gayle 2-0-3-0
© 2006 Indo-Asian News Service | 
