Fifth Test: India versus West Indies, Jamaica

Late strikes by India check Windies march

Day One

Despite a late comeback by the Indian bowlers, who grabbed three quick wickets including that of Brian Lara, West Indies, boosted by a hundred from opener Wavell Hinds, ended the first day of the fifth Test at Sabina Park at 287/4.

Morning session:

The colourful Sabina Park in Jamaica, venue for the fifth and final Test between India and West Indies, presented skippers Sourav Ganguly and Carl Hooper with the perfect setting for the decider. A greentop.

The history of the Sabina Park wicket can at best be described as fickle. It was here that Englishman Andy Sandham recorded Test cricket's first triple century in 1930; West Indian George Headley saved the 1935 Test with an unbeaten 270 and Sir Garfield Sobers amassed 365 runs against Pakistan in 1958.

This also is the ground where, in 1998, a Test match against England was called off after merely 45 minutes of play on a square with wide cracks. It was relaid and was adjudged the best of the five pitches used in the series against South Africa last year.

West Indies named an unchanged side while India replaced Harbhajan Singh with Anil Kumble, who flew back home for a surgery.

The head groundsman of Sabina Park, Charles Joseph, raised some eyebrows when he said it was a good wicket for the batsmen and would profit the pace bowlers if they found the right spot. A closer look at the wicket explained the reason for the surprising prognosis. The grass seemed to be along the edges of the square while the fast bowler's length area had a sprinkling of green. Maybe the visitors' aversion to grass had something to do with the arrangement.

With a pitch dipped in green and moisture to be exploited, Ganguly stood up to the occasion, won the toss and invited the West Indies to bat.

Srinath bowled the first over, had keeper Ajay Ratra flying to collect the ball. The other pace bowlers followed suit and sprayed the ball all over the place.

Openers Wavell Hinds and Chris Gayle, playing in front of their home ground, seemed subdued early on with a mere 11 runs in the first 10 overs. The reason being the line bowled by the pace bowlers that allowed the batsmen to leave the deliveries. And though they made for pretty economical figures, the bowlers had let the openers off the hook without getting them to play a reasonable amount of balls early on.

An hour into the morning and the openers, who had had a good look-in, stepped up the scoring rate. Gayle collared left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan for two fours in the 16th over. When Zaheer dug one in short, Gayle went up on his toes to tower over the ball and slam it through the mid-wicket for the first four; the next one, just short of good length, was effortlessly driven through the covers.

Hinds, the less flamboyant of the duo, had to content with playing second fiddle. He, however, played the shot of the morning when he drove Ashish Nehra past mid-on.

With his pace bowlers failing to extract any purchase from the wicket, Ganguly brought himself on and was warned by umpire Russell Tiffin for running onto the wicket.

With the shine off the new ball and the steam off the bowlers, the openers grew in confidence and found the fence with alarming regularity. Fifteen of the 16 boundaries in the morning session came in the last hour.

Off the last over before lunch, Gayle cut Harbhajan to the fence for his tenth boundary and sauntered through for an easy single of the next ball to bring up his half-century in 80 balls.

West Indies went into lunch at 88-0.

Post Lunch Session:

Skipper Sourav Ganguly continued to attack with three slips and a gully. The openers started cautiously. Gayle suffered cramps and received on-field treatment from the team physio.

The treatment seemed to have worked, as Gayle found his touch and rocked onto the back-foot to drive Nehra through the covers for a four. In the next over, Gayle went down on one knee to send a Zaheer delivery crashing into the advertising board on the cover fence. The Gayle-Hinds partnership registered the first hundred-run opening partnership of the series.

Bending his back, Zaheer directed one that climbed on the left-handed Gayle, who feathered it to Wasim Jaffer at gully. At 111-1, Gayle walked back to the pavilion with a stylish 106-ball 68 spiked with 13 fours.

Ramnaresh Sarwan, the consistent factor for the West Indies batting line-up with a string of scores that read 53, 35, 41, 60, 51, walked into the middle and after assessing the wicket pulled Srinath to the mid-wicket fence. Another exquisite cover drive fetched an all-run four for the Guyanese batsman.

Hinds danced down the wicket and flicked Harbhajan over the mid-wicket fielder for four to reach his second successive half-century of the series. Looking to dominate the young off-spinner, Hinds danced down the wicket and clobbered a huge six over long-off.

Harbhajan seemed a distant shadow of his old-self, failing to use the bounce of the wicket to his advantage. He bowled a rather inexplicable line outside off, which the West Indian batsman padded up to, and was smashed through the onside if he drifted down the leg-side. Failing to mix up his deliveries, Harbhajan seemed inefficient.

The pacers, too, followed the same script as they had in the morning session. Srinath, having gone wicketless since the third Test of the series, seemed weary while Nehra and Zaheer bowled another uninspiring spell.

At the stroke of tea, West Indies, having added 93 runs in the 28 overs of the afternoon session, went into the pavilion at 181-1.

Post Tea session:

India were on the brink of ignominy with Hinds and Sarwan launching a murderous assault on the bowling.

Boundaries flowed from the middle as the two recorded the hundred-run partnership for the second wicket off 165 balls.

Srinath decided to bowl at Sarwan from around the wicket. After a couple of deliveries, the young Guyanese bit the bait, hooked and top-edged the ball only to see it fall harmlessly in no-man's land.

Hinds flicked Harbhajan to square leg and scampered for a couple of run to score his second Test hundred -- his first on home ground. A boisterous crowd cheered as the Jamaican opener flashed his bat.

Sarwan, in the same over, reached his fourth half-century of the series with a single.

Hinds toyed with Harbhajan, smashing him around the park for three consecutive fours before the script changed in India's favour.

Impulsiveness got the better of Hinds when he played an inside-out shot to Harbhajan, and holed out to Jaffer at long off.

Harbhajan then gained in confidence to such a degree that he more than held his own in the last hour of play.

The 135-run partnership between Sarwan and Hinds had laid a neat premise for the middle-order batsmen to carve a huge first innings total and push India out of the match.

Lara strolled out to the middle and after struggling against Harbhajan hung his bat out at a delivery from Nehra and feathered an edge to keeper Ratra for nine runs (264-3).

For the umpteenth time Sarwan lost concentration and was caught at backward short-leg by Shiv Sunder Das off Harbhajan for 65. The host team had lost their second wicket with the score at 265 and three wickets for 18 runs in the last session.

The dismissal brought together Hooper and Shivnaraine Chanderpaul with more than 1000 runs between them and three hundreds each in the series.

India immediately took the second new ball, and Nehra in his first over with it bowled a wide delivery at Hooper. The Windies skipper chased it and drove uppishly to Das in the covers who did everything right -- moved to his right getting both hands to it -- except hold onto it.

West Indies designed trapdoors for itself, and India bailed them out.

It was heartening to see Ganguly walk up to Das -- struggling in the series with an aggregate of less than 100 runs -- and offer him a smile.

Hooper and Chanderpaul saw off the rest of the session, adding 23 runs, as bad light stopped play with three overs yet to be bowled.

Despite the fightback by India, another 125 runs for the hosts will certainly draw the curtains on an Indian win.

Scoreboard