Hooper, Chanderpaul make
India toil

Day 2:

The West Indies piled on the runs at the Kensington Oval, reaching 314 for 4, for a first innings lead of 212 runs over India at the end of the second day.

India will have to fashion this third Test, at Barbados, in a template of great sporting comebacks to avoid defeat. With three days left in the match, they will need to pull off a near miracle to prevent the hosts from winning and levelling the five-Test series one-all.

Carl Hooper, unbeaten on 70, and Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, also unbeaten with 75, meshed a 153-run partnership for the fifth-wicket to tilt the Test in the West Indies’s favour.

Morning session

Defending a total of 102, there was little India could have done on the second morning of the third Test against the West Indies, at the Kensington Oval, Barbados, on Friday, except pray.

With the hosts ending Day One on 30 for 1, skipper Sourav Ganguly required his bowlers to pick early wickets in the hope of not conceding a huge lead.

Zaheer Khan, as he has done consistently through the series, grabbed a wicket in the very second over of the day, cutting one back into southpaw Chris Gayle, trapping him in front for 14.

At 35-2, Bran Lara walked in to join the anchorman Ramnaresh Sarwan. Together the duo meshed a partnership, which set the Windies sailing to safety.

Ever since the Sri Lankan tour last year, the Lara-Sarwan combine has been the mainstay of the West Indies innings, particularly in a crisis. At the Kensington Oval, the duo yet again formed a union despite some watertight bowling by the Indian seamers.

Barring a few leg-before appeals off the bowling of Khan against Lara, India’s best chance of scalping a wicket came at 51 for 2, when Srinath appealed for a catch behind off Lara, who stood his ground. The umpire negated the appeal and even an endless number of replays seemed inconclusive.

Lara resembled a refugee at the crease -- never settled, yet stubbornly dwelling -- even as he compiled a fifty-run partnership for the third wicket with Sarwan.

Even though the West Indies scored at a slow pace, they stayed put at the wicket, steadily establishing their dominance over the match.

With a breakthrough seeming elusive, Ganguly brought himself on. Bowling his harmless medium pacers at Lara, he, however, dried up the runs with five consecutive maidens. Under a sunny sky, the West Indian total froze at 99 before Lara broke the shackles with a copy book off-drive past mid-off for four.

Sarwan, growing in confidence with immaculate driving and audacious cut shots, inched towards his half-century.

The West Indies went to lunch on 119-2, gaining a lead of 17 runs, with eight first innings wickets still standing.

Post Lunch Session

Sarwan drove Harbhajan Singh to the cover fence to bring up his 11th half-century. The West Indies can seek solace in the fact that they have the 21-year-old Sarwan in their ranks. And despite the fact that the youngster from Guyana has yet to reach three-figures in Tests, his class augurs well for West Indian cricket.

Lara then shelved his subdued play after lunch, blasting his way to Test fifty number 36. He was particularly severe on Srinath, straight-driving the Indian spearhead twice for boundaries in the same overs.

Skipper Ganguly, who seems to have taken over the mantle of 'Lucky skipper' from Ajit Wadekar, then rang in a bowling change, trading Srinath for Ashish Nehra. The left-armer immediately brought about the breakthrough, picking up Lara for 55.

Lara, looking to play the ball to mid-wicket, got a leading edge and offered Ashish Nehra the easiest of return catches. The dismissal of Lara, at 153, ended a 119-run partnership for the third wicket with Sarwan.

Nehra then cleaned up Sarwan for a double blow to the West Indian innings that seemed to be gaining impetus. Sarwan flashed at a widish delivery from Nehra only to be caught at gully for Wasim Jaffer. Another Sarwan innings promising to reach three figures was cut short. (161-4)

The Indians were still in the hunt with the lead yet to take threatening proportions. But skipper Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul held the innings together, and despite the runs being difficult to come by, shook away all fears of a middle-order collapse.

Hooper, struggling to get a move on things, held one end up as Chanderpaul cut Harbhajan Singh for a four and then followed it up with another sweep to the fence.

An interesting statistic that cropped up while play was on at the Oval was thought-provoking. If Kumble was dropped from the playing eleven for his dismal performance overseas, with a strike rate of 40-plus, one look at Harbhajan Singh’s performance overseas might ask the same question of the wily off-spinner from Punjab. His strike-rate is worse than that of Kumble.

Post Tea session:

India took the new ball six overs after tea and Nehra, with the very first ball of his new spell, almost got India the breakthrough but for an appalling decision by the third umpire. Chanderpaul drove straight at Nehra, who got his fingertips to the ball as it crashed into the non-striker’s wickets, with Hooper's bat in the air. After more than a dozen replays, third umpire Billy Doctrove ruled in favour of the batsman.

To the naked eye, the decision seemed rather straightforward but for the leanings of the television umpire who thought otherwise, putting into question the entire issue of more use of technology in the sport.

In the second Test at Port-of-Spain, television umpire Eddie Nichols had given a shocker when he ruled a caught-behind decision in Chanderpaul’s favour.

Chanderpaul, meanwhile, wheeled the ball past gully to bring up his 25th half-century off 88 deliveries, laced with seven fours. The young Guyanese is, in many ways, a senior version of Ramnaresh Sarwan failing to translate most of his fifties into three-figure scores. He has only three Test centuries to his name.

Skipper Hooper, enjoying the largesse of the umpiring decisions, then survived a plumb leg-before decision off Nehra again while the skipper played a sedate knock, icing it with a super shot occasionally and then allowing his more aggressive partner, Chanderpaul, slay the weary Indian bowlers.

The Indian bowlers, for their part, bowled with a lot of heart after the wicket, which had as part of a divine plot hatched with the host team, appeared docile for the last session of play.

Hooper registered his 28th half-century and then switched gears, puffing trails of smoke on Chanderpaul as he whizzed past his left-handed partner with a flurry of strokes. After having swept Harbhajan out of the attack, he turned his wrath towards Srinath and the other two seamers, cutting and pulling them with contempt to help the West Indies cross the 300-run mark.

As the shadows lengthened on the final extended session of play, both the sides seemed disinterested in staying in the middle.

The Hooper-Chanderpaul combine that ran up a 153-run partnership shut shop as the Indian bowlers seemed jaded with the futility of the situation.

A 115 runs were scored in the final session of play, which saw 38 overs being bowled without the loss of a single West Indian wicket.

The West Indies ended the day at 314-4 -- a lead of 212 runs and six wickets in hand.

Scoreboard

Day 1