Test heading for draw

Weather and Brian Lara’s decision not to enforce the follow-on have ensured that the third test between the West Indies and India at Bassaterre, St Kitts is heading inescapably towards a draw. The Indians fell short of the follow-on target in their first innings of 362 in response to the West Indies’ 581 despite VVS Laxman’s century, but having lost one of his bowlers in Pedro Collins to injury Lara declined to enforce the follow-on and effectively accepted the result of a draw with a day still to play.

Resuming the day at 150-2 in response to the daunting West Indies score, India had a far from ideal start to the day when they lost captain Rahul Dravid lbw to Jerome Taylor for 22 after just seven had been added to the overnight score. And in his next over Taylor took two more, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, neither of whom managed to score a run. And so India had fallen to 157-2 to 159-5.

Laxman continued his excellent innings at the other end though and brought up a well-deserved tenth test century, and finally received some support in the form of MS Dhoni, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, who scored 29, 43 and 38 not out respectively. Laxman brought up his century from 230 balls, and was promptly dismissed next ball, caught behind off the bowling of Collins. But his innings and the crucial partnerships lower-order partnerships he was involved in guided the visitors through to their final score of 362, one which had saved the match when Collins’s injury is taken into account.

As the West Indies openers walked out to bat after the tea break, all hope of a result had vanished. But there was still some interesting play. Shanthakumaran Sreesanth took two early wickets, Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan who scored 83 and 116 in the first innings respectively for just 3 and 23. Brian Lara came in and scored 19 at better than a run a ball before being caught behind off Kumble, while Shivnarine Chanderpaul managed just eleven before falling to the same bowler caught and bowled. But the other first innings centurion Daren Ganga added to his first innings 135 with an unbeaten 41 to safely guide the home team through to stumps.

The West Indies at 113-4 lead by 332 runs with six wickets in hand. An overnight declaration would add a great deal of interest to this match and guarantee a result, but with the injury to Collins ruling him out of the match it is more likely that Lara will take the safety of a draw ahead of the risk of declaring.

West Indies 581
Daren Ganga 135, Ramnaresh Sarwan 116
Harbhajan Singh 5-147, Munaf Patel 3-134

India 362
VVS Laxman 100, Wasim Jaffer 60
Corey Collymore 3-63, Jerome Taylor 3-118

West Indies 113-4
Daren Ganga 41 no, Ramnaresh Sarwan 23
S Sreesanth 2-19, Anil Kumble 2-36

West Indies lead by 332 runs with six wickets in hand.