Thaindian News

New Delhi, Nov 8 (IANS) Chasing a 276-run victory target, India still need 124 on the fourth day of the first cricket Test after debutant off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (6/47) spun out the West Indies in the second innings to bail the hosts out of a tight spot at the Ferozeshah Kotla here Tuesday.

Ashwin bowled brilliantly for his maiden fifer and nine for the match to send the West Indies crumbling to 180 on the third day.

Virender Sehwag (55) and Gautam Gambhir (22) gave India another good start with a 51-run opening stand and by stumps India were 152 for two with two of the best contemporary batsmen Sachin Tendulkar (33) and Rahul Dravid (30) carrying the fight.

Tendulkar in the course of his vigilant knock reached yet another monumental milestone of 15,000 Test runs in his 182nd match when he took a single off leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo to move from 27 to 28 and raised his bat to appreciative cheer from the Kotla crowd.

Gambhir fell shortly after tea, trapped leg-before by Marlon Samuels.

Sehwag, dropped on 11 by pacer Ravi Rampaul in his follow through, was in full flow and struck five fours and two sixes in his run-a-ball 55. It was against the run of play that the opener gifted his wicket to West Indies captain Darren Sammy by chopping the ball onto his stumps.

Tendulkar and Dravid then played cautiously in an unbroken 57-run stand, relying mostly on singles and waiting patiently for loose deliveries. Dravid hit a classy four off the last ball to end the day in style.

Earlier, Ashwin registered the second best match haul by an Indian debutant. Ashwin’s nine-for-128 is next best only to leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani’s 16 for 136, which also came against the West Indies in 1988. Hirwani is a national selector now.

Riding on Ashwin’s performance, India, who were bowled out for 209 in the first innings, came back strongly in the morning session. Another debutant, pacer Umesh Yadav, picked up two for 36.

West Indies, resuming at the overnight 21/2, lost five wickets before lunch and couldn’t quite recover from it. A gutsy 47 from first innings centurion Shivnarine Chanderpaul and a quick-fire 42 from captain Darren Sammy gave them a challenging score. Sammy batted brilliantly with the tail, the last four batsmen adding 96 runs.

Ishant Sharma struck in the third over to get rid of night-watchman Fidel Edwards (1), who flashed at an away delivery and edged straight to wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

An error in judgment from Kirk Edwards (33) gave Yadav his maiden Test wicket. Edwards thought the ball was angling out but Yadav brought it in to uproot the off-stump.

The dismissal triggered a collapse as West Indies slumped from 53 for three to 84 for seven. Ashwin struck twice in his fifth over of the day to remove Darren Bravo (12) and Marlon Samuels before he dismissed Sammy. Both Samuels and Sammy were bamboozled by the carrom-ball.

Yadav picked up his second wicket when wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh (7) went for an ambitious drive and edged it to his Indian counterpart with gloves Dhoni.

Chanderpaul fought patiently during his 58-ball stay before becoming Ashwin’s second leg-before wicket in the innings after Bravo.

Sammy, who hit five fours and a six in his 37-ball innings and Rampaul (18) made sure their side had something to fight it out.

(Abhishek Roy can be contacted at abhishek.roy@ians.in)