India clinch series 2-0 despite Bravo's ton

Bravo's century was just not enough for the West Indians

The moment Bravo and Chanderpaul stepped out to bat today on the fourth day at Eden Gardens, the spectators must have got the feeling of an impending doom. A feeling similar to the one generated by Laxman and Dravid in the minds and the hearts of the Aussie cricketers around ten years back at the very same venue. The pitch wasn’t doing much, the batsmen were well set and runs were leaking out thick and fast against the Indian bowling attack but however glorious uncertainties the game of cricket may hold, the fairy tale script for West Indies was just not to be there. Yes, the likes of Bravo, Chanderpaul and Samuels played exceptionally well but in the end it was too much for them to cover their surprising undoings in the first innings.

The day started with West Indies still trailing India by 283 runs and it didn’t take long for Chanderpaul and Bravo to take control of the proceedings. They chipped along at a fairly brisk pace and barring one run out chance were never really troubled by the Indian bowlers. Their biggest blow however was delivered by Umesh Yadav in the 83rd over when he cleaned up Shivnarine Chanderpaul with the second new ball and presented a chance to the Indian bowlers to go through the fragile West Indian lower middle order. However, Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo both batted with tremendous application and managed to forge a 132 run partnership in 26.2 overs scoring at around 5 an over. The left handed Bravo also managed to bring up his second test century during the course of this partnership and did his comparisons to the great Brian Lara no harm by playing some of those trademark lofted drives that the West Indian legend was well known for. Marlon Samuels also played with flair and aggression, chipping in with an attacking half century and was particularly severe on a lackluster Ishant Sharma hitting him for 26 runs in the 12 deliveries that he faced. Pragyan Ojha however was the man who gave India the much needed breakthrough, first accounting for Darren Bravo and then Carlton Baugh in quick succession to leave the West Indians reeling at 411/6 still needing another 67 runs to make India bat again. Marlon Samuels also perished soon after to Ashwin and after that the match was as good as over for the West Indians. Darren Sammy hit some lusty blows at the end scoring 32 off 28 balls, an innings which included three huge hits over the boundary but it was alreally too little and too late for them. Captain MS Dhoni then turned to rookie Umesh Yadav to clean up the West Indian tail and he delivered by clean bowling Darren Sammy and Devendra Bishoo in successive deliveries to hand the Indians an innings and 15 run victory. The win also meant that India now hold an unassailable 2-0 lead over West Indies going into the third test match at Wankhede, Mumbai on 22nd November. VVS Laxman was judged the man of the match award for his match winning knock of 176 not out in the first innings.

The Eden recovery act sadly was not to happen today.