West Indies pushes 2nd test to 5th day as India still needs 8 wickets to win

 

India has taken another step towards winning the 9th consecutive Test series against West Indies.  Team India, which won easily in the first match of the series, has been successful in pulling the host Windies team till the last day in the second Test.  In response to the target of 365 runs from India on the fourth day of the match, the Windies team scored 76 runs after losing 2 wickets till the end of the game.  That is, now India will have to get 8 wickets on the last day of the match.

 Like the third day of the match, there was a lot of loss of time due to rain on the fourth day on Sunday.  It also snatched many overs from Team India, in which they could have got some more West Indies wickets by settling their innings quickly.  Nevertheless, India got success in declaring the innings by batting itself for the second time after settling the first innings of the West Indies.

 To make up for the loss on the third day due to rain, the start of the fourth day was half an hour earlier.  Team India took advantage of this and got the remaining 5 wickets of West Indies within just 55 minutes.  In the first two overs of the day, Mukesh Kumar and Mohammad Siraj achieved success.  Siraj made excellent use of swing with the new ball and took 4 out of 5 wickets in his name.  Siraj took a total of 5 wickets in this innings, which is only the second time in his career. On the 4th morning he got his 4 wickets by getting 2 wickets with out swingers for caught behind and 2 wickets lbw with vicious inswingers as West Indies were bundled out for 255 .

 India got a huge lead of 183 runs by stacking West Indies for 255 runs.  After this, when Team India entered its second innings, the attitude was clear from the first over itself.  To score maximum runs by playing minimum overs.  Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma did  blistering batting.  Rohit scored a half-century in just 35 balls that included two mighty hook shots for 6s .  India completed 100 runs in just 12.2 overs, which is a new record in Test cricket.

 However, in the midst of all this, the game was interrupted twice due to rain. When the game of the third session started, both  Jaiswal (38) and Rohit (57) perished in trying to play attacking  shots .  Ishan Kishan, who was promoted at number four, continued the quick batting of the openers.  Ishan (52*) , along with Shubman Gill (29*) , took the team to 181 for 2 in just 24 overs, where India declared the innings.  Ishan scored the first half-century of his Test career in just 33 balls.

The Windies team, which did excessive defensive batting in the first innings, made a slightly better start in the second innings.  Captain Craig Brathwaite kept the pace of runs fast but on the other hand,  Chanderpaul was seen struggling to score runs. 

 Nevertheless, India had to wait for the 18th over for the first wicket, when Ravichandran Ashwin made Brathwaite his second victim in this match.

 In his very next over, Ashwin returned Kirk McKenzie to the pavilion LBW without opening the account.  After getting  for 2 wickets for just 44 runs, it was felt that the Windies team would disintegrate but Chanderpaul and Jermaine Blackwood batted with solidity .  Both made an unbeaten partnership of 32 runs in 12 overs and raised some hope of saving the test on the last day by taking the team to 76 runs for 2 wickets .

Thus India will hope that rains does not prove to be a spoilsport like the 4th Ashes test and they get ample time on day 5 to pick up the rest 8 wickets . As for the hosts , they need to bat with great stubbornness and application to save the match . However if they want to win with still 289 runs left , they have to play aggresive cricket without being careless .