India 165/4 on third day of second Test against West Indies

Port of Spain, April 21: Thanks to the unfinished 109- run fifth wicket partnership between skipper Sourav Ganguly and V V S Laxman, India recovered from a batting collapse to build on the advantage of a healthy first innings lead on the third day of the second cricket Test against West Indies here.

India had slumped to 56 for four in their second innings, with both Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar back in pavilion, which looked to have neutralised their advantage of a 94-run first innings lead that they took by bowling West Indies out for 245 earlier in the day yesterday.

But Ganguly and Laxman played with full responsibility and a lot of patience to guide India out of trouble. By the time stumps were drawn on a yet another extended day's play, India had reached 165 for four with Laxman batting on 60 and Ganguly two runs short of his half-century.

It was an admirable effort from the two batsmen as they put India back in command with an overall lead of 259 runs after three wickets within a space of two runs had put the team on backfoot.

Earlier in the day, the home team's first innings folded with the addition of 48 runs to their overnight total of 197 for six. The West Indian tailenders, in the company of their skipper Carl Hooper, frustrated the Indian bowlers for close to two hours but their effort could not prevent India from taking a first innings lead.

Both Ganguly and Laxman curbed their natural instincts for strokeplay and were very judicious in their shot selection. There was no flashing outside the off-stump or any ambitious drives. They batted patiently and waited for the bad deliveries to despatch to the boundary.

Ganguly even showed restraint in going for his favourite cut shots and was more inclined to play with a straight bat. The two batsmen slowly but steadily built on a partnership and denied any success to the West Indies bowlers in the last session of play during which they added 88 runs in 37 overs.

The two also showed a remarkable sense of urgency in running between the wickets which ensured runs never dried up even when boundaries were hard to come by.

Laxman was all elegance as he drove and pulled with ease. Unlike in his two previous innings in this series, there were no starting troubles for the stylish Hyderabadi batsman this time and he middled the ball well.

He hit six sweetly timed boundaries before bringing up his third half-century of this series in as many innings when he flicked Hooper for two to square leg fence.

Ganguly too made a desperate attempt to reach his fifty before the day's play ended but had to finish at 48 after having batted for more than three hours.

Earlier, the Indian openers once again failed to lay a good foundation with Shiv Sunder Das getting out for nought. Sanjay Bangar and in-form Dravid added 48 for the second wicket before disaster struck the Indians.