India run for cover in Dominica

Tony Becca, Contributor

The West Indies and India, the past champions and now the seventh-ranked team in the world playing at home and the number one ranked team playing away from home, one trying to recover their former glory, the other, with six of their best players injured or resting and staying at home, bidding to enjoy their recent elevation played out an exciting three-match series recently.

The matches, played before empty houses except for the last two days in Dominica, were all low-scoring games, except for India's first innings in Dominica and the West Indies' last innings in the same Test match, but with India boasting the advantage in every one of them after some close battles.

India won the series 1-0, but in a contest affected by rain and played generally on seaming, bouncy pitches it could easily have been 2-0 but for the batting of Marlon Samuels, Darren Bravo, and Carlton Baugh in the second Test, or 3-0 but for the batting of Kirk Edwards, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and Fidel Edwards as well as India's surprising decision to call it quits in the final Test.

More important, and even though dropped catches are a part of the game, it could have been 1-0 in the West Indies favour but for captain Darren Sammy's failure to catch India's hero Rahul Dravid at zero in the second innings of the first Test.

Dravid went on to a century innings, and India won the match.

Indeed, but for V.V.S. Laxman's innings of 85 and 87 in the second Test match, it could even have been 2-0 for the West Indies.

The batting on both sides, with the exception of Dravid, Laxman, and Suresh Raina for India, Bravo, Chanderpaul, Samuels, and Baugh for the West Indies, who all played one innings of brilliance, and Kirk Edwards, who hit a century on debut, was disappointing.

India, who were short of four of their leading batsmen, including Sachin Tendulkar, the world's leading run-getter and the man with the most centuries to his name, were always struggling although, unlike the West Indies, they were always able to get out of trouble.

The bowling, on both sides, was good, with Ishant Sharma of India and Ravi Rampaul of the West Indies being the best two.

Praveen Kumar moved the ball well and promises to be a handful in England during the coming series. Fidel Edwards was quick and showed that he had recovered well from his injury, and although he never lived up to his earlier promise, right-arm leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo confirmed that he is one for the future,

Partnership

He has presence, he is a fighter, he possesses the gifts of a good leg-spinner, control, loop, spin, variation, and he is a fielder beyond the ordinary.

Bishoo's catch at Sabina Park, running to his left from square-leg to mid-wicket to dismiss Harbhajan Singh and to break the partnership between Raina and Harbhajan, the partnership which had rescued India from 85 for six to 231 for six, was something to remember.

For the West Indies, the bowling, apart from Bishoo's amazing catch, provided the memory of the series. It kept the West Indies in contention time and time again, even though it was difficult to properly judge its quality because of the absence of India's big guns.

Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, and Tendulkar could have and would have made a difference, a significant difference, to the batting of the Indians and to the bowling figures of the West Indians if not, because of the rain, to the outcome of the series.

The West Indies fielding was also good throughout the series, and so, too, were their efforts in bowling and occasionally in batting as Sammy, as far as motivation was concerned, led the team admirably, especially on the third day in Dominica when the West Indies were down to three bowlers.

The bowling, but for a few more men of speed, looks good, the batting, but for Chanderpaul and including Kieran Powell, needs some work, some technical work, and wicketkeeper Baugh looked good behind the wicket but, despite two good performances in front of it, needs to work on his batting.

He is a much better batsman than some of the strokes which got him out suggest.

Coach Ottis Gibson is doing a good job apparently, and the team looks more professional than in recent past.

For a change, the players, punching above their weight, and the coach are apparently singing from the same hymn book, and who to tell, once they continue to do that, and once the team selection is right, good things may be just around the corner for West Indies cricket.

Sammy has said that the hope of the team is to be in the top five, to be able to compete with the best, in four years' time, in 2015.

That may be so, but with a little luck, it could shorter than he thinks.

The one disappointment to the series, except for the batting of the two teams, was the finish to the third Test match in Dominica.

The series was short, and although it was lacking in really high-quality cricket, it was exciting as fortunes swayed from side to side like a pendulum.

It was so exciting that it deserved a better ending. It deserved an ending fit for the crowd which was at hand.

Easy target

After the West Indies had reached 99 for five and seemed destined to fall for another measly total, Bravo and Baugh pulled them around to 204, and India then scored 347 for a lead of 143.

The West Indies then slumped to 40 for three, Kirk Edwards and Chanderpaul and then Chanderpaul and Fidel Edwards rallied them to 322, and instead of looking an easy target for victory, India were left chasing 180 in 47 overs.

That was under four runs an over, but at 94 for three, with the experienced Dravid and Laxman batting, with the promising young Vijay Kohli and their captain and exciting batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni, plus centurion Harbajan, to come, they called off the chase.

What was left was 86 runs for 15 overs, and although it was just under six runs an over to get, even though they were one up in the count, although no one expected to go for it, lose the match, and tie the series, it was worth a try.

I could not believe it. I had stepped out of the room and gone for something. When I returned, a minute or two afterwards, I saw the players shaking hands.

Had they tried and lost wickets, say two quick wickets, they could, at any time, run for cover. They had enough batsmen to hold off the West Indies in a few overs even if the West Indies then wanted to push for an improbable victory.

That was the disappointment of the contest, that is the disappointment of Test cricket, that was a disappointment for the Dominica crowd which turned out to see some riveting action, and that was a far cry from Karachi in 1978 when, with Pakistan leading 1-0 in the three-match series, with Sunil Gavaskar having scored two centuries in the match, Pakistan dismissed India on the last day of the final match and left themselves 163 to win in 100 minutes.

Pakistan, with Majid Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Asif Iqbal, Javed Miandad, Mushtaq Mohammad, Imran Khan in the team, did not sit on their laurels, on their one-nil lead.

Against an attack of Kapil Dev and Karsan Ghavri, Chandrasekhar and Bishen Bedi, with Asif hitting 44 and Javed 62 not out, Pakistan breezed past the total for the loss of two wickets in 24.5 overs.

India were not at their best during the recent series, but their approach in Dominica is not how champions play the game, and win support for the game.

In a few days, India take on England in the first Test of a series which will determine the undisputed number one, and my hope is that the action throughout the 100th Test match between the two countries, and throughout the 2,000th Test match of all time since the beginning of Test cricket 134 years ago, will be worthy of the highest level, a fitting tribute to the game, to the occasion, and to the ground on which it is to be played.