[Bounce]

West Indies in India, 2011


First Test Match at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Omar Phillips powered the West Indian inning

The West Indians came out confidently in their 2nd inning, leading by 45 runs. The Indian bowlers were under severe pressure, considering their bad run of form in recent times. The West Indian skipper, Chris Gayle came out to open along with Omar Phillips. Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar begun the proceedings for India.

The only Indian bowler going well was Praveen Kumar. Apart for performing well in the previous tournaments, he managed to get Gayle out in his first over. The swashbuckling opener had to depart for just 1 run under his name.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the most dependable batsmen from West Indies joined Phillips. One would have thought that Chanderpaul would play a big role in the 2nd inning whereas Phillips would get out cheaply, but it was quite the opposite. Chanderpaul was cleaned up by an in-swinging delivery from Zaheer Khan for just 9. The West Indians started off poorly with the scorecard reading 10 for 2.

Ramnaresh Sarwan came out at the pitch. He along with Phillips manged to stabilize the West Indian innings. Sarwan looked pretty comfortable facing the new ball, whereas Phillips was having some problems. However, both of them survived the difficult first hour of the day and go the inning back on track. The spinners, Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha were looking very poor while the partnership was on. Eventually, Zaheer Khan came to the party yet again to dismiss Sarwan for a well made 61. The West Indians were finally looking good with 131 on the board, with the loss of 3 wickets.

Narsingh Deonarine, the West Indian hero for the first inning too chipped in well with his inning of 30 odd runs. On the other hand, Omar Phillips managed to complete his half century and was looking strong. The turbanator, Harbhajan Singh finally grabbed a wicket, sending back Deonarine. He managed to dismiss Ryan Hinds for a first ball duck, just the next delivery.

Omar Phillips continued to dominate. He reached his century with a glorious boundary off the back foot, bisecting the positions of the point and the third man fielders. But he had to walk back to the pavilion soon as Pragyan Ojha too picked up a wicket. He trapped Phillips for an LBW. Although the ball pitched outside leg, the umpire gave it out. "Spot-fixing?"

Denesh Ramdin and Darren Sammy contributed well at the bottom. No batsmen from the tail could even manage to reach the double figures as the West Indians perished for just 288 on the board. Having a lead of 45 runs, this meant that the Indians would require 334 runs in the last inning, with 11 overs remaining in the fourth days play along with an entire fifth day. The match is evenly poised and can go either way. It'll be interesting to see how the Indians respond to this.

The spinning duo had a bad start but were crucial in restricting West Indies to a score less than 300



India needs 334 runs to win