Bishoo takes spectacular catch ... But West Indies need to hope and pray

Whoever said years and years ago that catches win matches did not get it right. Either that, or things have changed.

On Monday, with India staging a grand fightback, the leader of the counter-attack, Harbhajan Singh, known better as an off-spin bowler but with two centuries under his belt, hooked at fast bowler Fidel Edwards and the ball flew high, heading towards the Kingston Cricket Club behind the mid-wicket boundary.

Out of nowhere came Devendra Bishoo from backward square-leg, running like mad to his left, eye on the ball. We gave him no chance, I gave him no chance. He ran for some 20 yards to his left until he took off, like a bird in flight, and flying parallel to the ground with his two hands cupped together, caught the ball, and fell flat on the ground, holding on to the ball all the time until his gleeful teammates, watching him all along, engulf him in a show of appreciation.

Harbhajan looked at Bishoo a couple of times while walking off the field.

It was a great catch, it was a stunning catch and it was a catch that stopped India in their tracks, or so we thought.

India, after winning the toss and electing to bat on the opening day of the first Test match, were reeling at 85 for six before Harbhajan joined Suresh Raina and together they added 146 runs for the seventh wicket before Bishoo's brilliance removed Harbhajan for 70 to leave India at 231 for seven.

That catch, however, did not lead to victory for the West Indies, for although the noise which greeted it sounded as if it came from fans numbered more in the tens of thousands rather than like the few hundreds who were on hand, India strolled to victory by 63 runs after lunch on the fourth day.

Although it was a catch to remember, it was not the only great catch of the match.

In the West Indies second innings, after Adrian Barath and Lendl Simmons had given the homesters a rollicking start of 62 without loss off 11 overs. Praveen Kumar then removed Barath and Virat Kohli reduced them to 63 for two by pulling off a blinder at gully off Ishant Sharma to dismiss Ramnaresh Sarwan for zero.

Impressive India

India, after being 85 for six, rallied to 246, dismissed a feeble West Indies batting line-up for 173, scored 252; thanks to a watchful innings of 112 by Rahul Dravid - who came to the crease at zero for one and was last man out - and then, after leaving the West Indies to score 326 to win the match, to score the most runs in the match to win it, bowled them out for 262.

To their credit, the West Indies did score the highest total in the game.

Their 262, however , was not good enough, at least it was nowhere near their world record 418 for seven to beat Australia at the Antigua Recreation Ground in 2003; their 348 for five to beat New Zealand; or their 341 for one to beat England at Lord's in 1984.

To lose to India is no disgrace, not to a team with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth in the side.

To lose to India with those players not around, however, is a little bit much to take, especially at home, especially at Sabina Park and especially on a pitch which, although it produced some varied bounce, was not dangerous to bat on as Dravid demonstrated, after a let off in the second innings, and Barath, both innings, showed us.

Dravid was the difference between both sides. With VVS Laxman out of form and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, probably in his last days, the other batsmen were totally out of it.

Kohli of India is a fine player, but fast bowler Fidel Edwards peppered him quite a bit and he could not deal with the pace, and particularly so, the bouncer. In fact, one of the highlights of the match was Edwards bowling to Kohli and the batsman bobbing and weaving as bouncer after bouncer were bowled at him.

Sarwan looked a shadow of himself, Chanderpaul, called to a meeting on Saturday afternoon by the West Indies Board, seemed to lack the confidence to dictate the pace of the game, Brendan Nash looked pathetic in his bid to survive and while Barath appeared sure and confident, but a little too rash, Simmons and Darren Bravo still seemed too vulnerable.

While Carlton Baugh and captain Daren Sammy failed to offer any confidence that they will ever score any runs at numbers seven and eight, respectively, the bowling attack of pacers Edwards and Ravi Rampaul, and leg-spinner Bishoo, produced the goods, and so too, for a while, did Sammy.

The West Indies go into the second Test with the memory that they lost the first Test match because their batsmen did not perform. It is as simple as that.

The question now is this: what do they do about it?

Unfortunately, they cannot do anything about it, that is, anything but hope for the best.

The batting is weak, but apart from removing either Sarwan, or Nash and bringing in Marlon Samuels, with none of their wicketkeepers batting as they should, with Sammy not batting as they would like, or as he would like, there is nothing they can do to strengthen it.

The bowling is one short, but with Sammy as the captain, with none of their batsmen even known as bowlers, there is nothing they can do about it, nothing but this.

Play five batsmen, one wicketkeeper and five bowlers, including Sammy and Kemar Roach, and hope and pray.