India 358 on second day of third Test against WI

Kolkata, October 31: Once Javagal Srinath and Parthiv Patel had ensured that India reach a comfortable-looking 358, Wavell Hinds and Chris Gayle took charge. After a cautious start, they played confidently to score 172 for the first wicket, a record for West Indies at the Eden.

In the process, Hinds got his century, falling to Harbhajan Singh at that score when he could have easily stayed on by being careful under the fading light.

Hinds' happiness, however, will have a hitch. On 99, a Harbhajan delivery hit his pad, brushed the bat and was cleanly taken by substitute Shiv Sundar Das. Umpire Asoka de Silva did not see the snick and was unmoved by the appeal.

That breakthrough, after a hard day's work, was enough to spur Harbhajan. He pocketed Ramnaresh Sarwan and Mervyn Dillon by day-end to give India some of the initiative back.

However, Gayle is still very much there, batting on 80, with Shivnarine Chanderpaul for company.

Skipper Carl Hooper should be happy with the 189 for three at stumps, but could be reminding his batsmen that the same score without any loss would have sounded much better.

The first hour-and-a-half's play was perhaps the most exciting part of the day. That was when Patel, playing his first game at the Eden Gardens, and Srinath, perhaps playing his last, blossomed in contrasting styles.

An eventful first over by Cameroon Cuffy found Patel being dropped at the slips by Hooper. Cuffy, however, gained compensation with the last ball of the over by uprooting Harbhajan Singh's off-stump.

With just five runs added to the overnight score, the West Indies were thinking of wiping out the Indian tail. However, Srinath and Patel played what can be called the innings of their life.

While Patel used techniques from the trainer's manual to gather runs, Srinath's knock was the kind that you see in the slog overs of a one-dayer. He kept on swinging and on most of the occasions, got bat on ball. That fetched him seven boundaries in his 46, with three coming in the same over off Cuffy. He also hit the bowler for a six over long-off.

The pair's 50-run partnership came in as many balls with Srinath doing the bulk of the scoring. This is the third time Srinath crossed the 30-mark in this series. Both the batsmen were scoring freely, with poor fielding and overthrows not helping matters.

Jermaine Lawson, hit for two consecutive square-driven fours by Patel, had his revenge when the young batsman tried a similar shot and was caught by Shivnarine Chanderpaul at gully. Patel fell three runs short of what would have been his first Test 50.

Srinath departed a little later, when he edged Mervyn Dillon to Hooper at slips. The 73-run partnership came in 90 balls and saw off the morning freshness that normally tends to help fast bowlers here.

That might have worked to India's disadvantage when the West Indians came in to bat. The openers were hardly troubled by the Indian fast bowlers, although Srinath did rap Gayle on the pad with the innings' first ball and followed it up with a loud appeal.

The start was slow for the visitors, with the first runs coming in the third over when Gayle drove Srinath on the off-side for a boundary. The idea was to settle down before going for the runs. Neither Hinds nor Gayle was in hurry.

Sourav Ganguly introduced spin as early as the seventh over, with Harbhajan and Anil Kumble trying to extract turn from the newly-laid wicket. Very few in the current West Indies team can play spin well and the openers do not fall in that category. Ganguly clearly wanted to exploit this weakness.

However, the slowness of the wicket put paid to India's hopes of an early breakthrough as both Hinds and Gayle negotiated Kumble well, while finding Harbhajan a little uncomfortable. Harbhajan appealed every time the ball hit the pad. A few were close calls, but most of them were just enthusiastic show of involvement in the game.

Soon, Harbhajan was bowling a line outside the leg-stump. With a short-leg, square-leg, fine-leg and deep fine-leg in place, the West Indies openers were being invited to sweep. They did not fall for the trap, at least initially. Hinds duly completed his half-century with a shot that hit VVS Laxman at point, deflected towards mid-wicket and went over the ropes.

Gayle too completed his half-century, before Hinds reached the third three-figure mark of his career, second against India. Hinds succumbed to the temptation of sweeping, falling to Ganguly's trap by giving the Indian captain a simple catch at square-leg.