India grab first series win against West Indies

Chennai, October 20: In the end, the West Indies were not good enough to force a change in the script of the Test series. Resuming at 186 for four on Sunday, they went tumbling for 229, handing India a target of 81 to get to win the game and the series, which they did, losing a couple of wickets.

That gave India the fifth straight series win at home, and Sourav Ganguly, with 14 Test wins, is only one away from Mohammed Azharuddin's record.

The West Indies had batted with purpose on Saturday, but on Sunday morning, again under lights in murky conditions, they did not stand a chance once Ramnaresh Sarwan's fighting innings came to an end.

The problem for the visitors was that they had lost all the big batsmen. Wavell Hinds and Carl Hooper had looked to put up a fight on Saturday, but with their departure, added to Shivnarine Chanderpaul's early dismissal, Sarwan was left with only Ryan Hinds and sundry for company.

Hinds was never convincing, and it is high time that the West Indians looked at replacing him. Marlon Samuels has been carded as a one-day specialist, but he could not have done any worse, while Darren Ganga also looks a better bet.

But that is the visitors' problem. For the Indians, there were precious few, apart from the propensity to go for catches without calling. Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble are extremely lucky not to do themselves serious harm when they went for a catch and collided.

That apart, there was very little to hamper them, since the West Indies batsmen did very little. Only in Sarwan was there a bit of opposition and Ganguly had to call up Zaheer Khan to dislodge him. The Baroda bowler did it promptly as Sarwan fell over trying to play him to the on-side, and was trapped plumb in front.

Sarwan scored 78 fighting runs, having stayed at the crease for 305 minutes and faced 214 balls. He had hit two sixes on Saturday, and had four other hits to the fence, but towards the end of his knock, he had become a tad too defensive, probably because he had little confidence in his partners.

Then Harbhajan Singh got into the act. His ninth over of the day, 28th of the innings, ended the match as a competition. Ryan Hinds tried an extravagant heave and spooned a catch like namesake Wavell Hinds on Saturday. The very next ball was edged to back short-leg by Gareth Breese. Mervyn Dillon swung one to the boundary but was adjudged lbw off the next ball, off the edge of his bat --- nothing new there, though.

Parthiv Patel took a smart one-handed catch to snare Ridley Jacobs while Jermaine Lawson lost his stumps as Zaheer ended with three wickets. Harbhajan had to be satisfied with four as he himself dropped a skier and then Ganguly and Kumble ensured that he remains on four wickets.

Sanjay Bangar and Virender Sehwag came in to bat and it was business as usual as the latter started hammering the bowlers. India would not have lost any wickets, certainly not Sehwag, but the lowering clouds and spitting rain must have prompted him to clobber the bowling and get the runs quickly.

Sehwag did very well, with a big six off Breese, and an even bigger hit off Carl Hooper, which bounced off the roof of the stadium. He also slammed three boundaries. But right after the second six, he jumped out again to be stumped.

Bangar really needs to get down to scoring runs faster. He is nowadays giving a good start to the batting, but that alone is not enough, since in Indian cricket, you are remembered, or even retained in the side, only on basis of the numbers you reach.

The Railways batsman scored another painstaking 20 before departing.

Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar ensured thereafter that India did not suffer any further reverses.