India vs West Indies: 1st Test Day 3 Report

There was some engrossing action at Delhi’s Ferozshah Kotla, where India and West Indies are battling against each other to win the first test of the ongoing three test match series. It was an absorbing day of test cricket with runs being scored, wickets falling, wonderful spin performances in the Indian conditions and some really good batting skills displayed by the two gentlemen who have scored the most runs in the test cricket history till date.

The first session started poorly for the Windies when the night watchman Fidel Edwards succumbed a catch to Dhoni off the bowling of Ishant Sharma on the third over of the day. But he did save one of the team’s front line batsmen being exposed to Indian spinners an evening earlier, so in a way, Edwards achieved what he wanted to. In the very next Ishant Sharma over, a difficult chance was put down by Ashwin at covers of the then new batsman, Darren Bravo.

The next victim was Kirk Edwards, who was going strong but misjudged an incoming delivery from Umesh Yadav. He showed arms to a delivery that was coming in to him only to crash on stumps and giving India a perfectly decent start of the morning. However, things completely changed in favour of the hosts when Dhoni made Ashwin bowl.

Ashwin started off brilliantly and struck right away. He more than made up for his missed catch when he took Bravo off his over off the day. Not only that he provided double blow when he took his second wicket off the over in the form of Marlon Samuels with a dream bowl and left Windies struggling at 63/6.

A quick wrap up looked on the anvil only to be denied by the same wily customer and old Indian nemesis, Shivnarine Chanderpaul who not only kept his ‘precious’ wicket in hand but also scored quite briskly to give his bowlers something to bowl at. He made a well made 47 when the flavour of the day, Ashwin picked him up with a yet another LBW dismissal. Ashwin completed his first 5-wicket hall and that too in his debut, when he bowled Sammy out.Sammy before getting out, provided some entertaining moments. A straight lofted shot to Ishant off his own bowling is worth mentioning.

The last pair of Rampaul and Bishoo provided some resistance and added 23 important runs for the final wicket when Rampaul handed over a catch to Ojha off Ashwin in pursuit of some quick runs. Ashwin in the process took 6 wickets for mere 47 runs and captured the best figures for an Indian spinner on debut after Narendra Hirwani. Ashwin scalped a total of 9 wickets in the match. The west Indian innings folded on 180, setting Indians the target of 276 runs on a difficult wicket.

Soon after the Windies innings wrapped up their innings, a deja vu of the second day came forth when the Indian openers were again left to fight for a tantalising short period before the tea break. The Indian innings started in the similar fashion as in the first innings, when Gambhir clipped Edwards off his pads on the 2nd delivery to boundary. The openers did manage to survive the 8 overs before tea interval and scored 38 runs. However, there were some lucky moments for India when Rampaul let go off a catch of Sehwag in the 4th over. The miss might prove costly to the Windies.

The Delhi duo started the final session more aggressively, for may be they knew the importance of scoring when the ball was still new as the bowlers would get away once the ball becomes soft at Ferozshah Kotla. Sehwag, being his usual self, provided some magical shots off the spinners. He took centre stage once Gambhir departed after collaborating for yet another 50 run partnership and scored at least one boundary per over and reached his second fifty of the match. He couldn’t better his first innings performance and dragged one ball off Sammy to his stumps and got out on 55.

The two stalwarts then united in the middle, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, who are also the top two run getters in tests They showed their wealth of experience and batted gingerly till the end of the day to ensure that no more casualties occured for India and the fans could sleep in peace. Their respective innings were characterised by compact defense technique and some flowing attacking shots. Sachin, in due course, completed his 15,000 runs in his illustrious test career and thus, becoming the first batsman to achieve such a feat. Though there were some close calls, the duo managed to survive any blues and Dravid ended the day with a beautiful cover drive off Bishoo for a boundary.

India are 152/2 at the end of the 3rd day proceedings, still needing 124 more runs to post a victory. If they achieve it, this would be their 3rd highest run chase to win a test match in the 4th innings.

Few things could be learnt from the 3rd day’s play. Ashwin is the new sensation on the anvil, and with Ojha also coming to party, Harbhajan needs to perform out of his skin to get back into the team. Obviously, remaining wicketless in a match would not help. Second, whenever India has a fight in its hands, India finds Rahul Dravid in the middle. Similar is the case here. With run-making not being easy and the other batsmen looking rusty, the onus is on in-form Rahul Dravid to take India home and his stay at the wicket should determine the outcome of the match. Final words : An intriguing day 4 is waiting for a kick start!