NEW DELHI: India bowlers toiled exhausting, managing 4 wickets as a defensive West Indies crawled their option to 229 for 5 on a rain-marred third day of the second Test in Port of Spain.

With a few rain interruptions, solely 67 overs have been doable during which West Indies added simply 143 runs because it regarded the hosts have been in search of a draw.
Mohammed Siraj, R Ashwin, Mukesh Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja picked up a wicket apiece as West Indies completed the day 209 runs behind India’s first innings rating of 438.

Despite the detrimental batting tactic, there was no let-up in depth in Indian bowling as Ashwin bowled the ‘ball of the sequence’ and Siraj delivered an ideal in-cutter to scrub up Joshua Da Silva simply on the stroke of rain-break to finish the day on a fair keel on the flattest of decks.
West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite (75 off 235 balls) used his huge powers of focus to frustrate the Indian assault on an insipid observe earlier than world’s No. 1 Test bowler held the centre stage with a magical second that introduced the grins again in Indian camp.
Day 3, As It Happened
The observe on supply here’s a poor commercial for Test cricket and if it will get any ranking apart from ”Average” from ICC that might be an actual shock.
If West Indies have been indiscreet of their shot choice within the opening Test, the house group batters have been over-cautious and a dull pitch helped their detrimental strategy and a draw appears an inevitability.
Toiling for near 73 overs on a observe which at greatest could be known as ”lifeless”, Ashwin (33-10-61-1) bowled a supply that had flight and required inward drift which was ok to entice Brathwaite to plonk his front-foot for his umpteenth defensive prod.
But to his horror, the ball turned sharply, an off-spinner’s dream supply that went between bat and pad to hit the stumps.
A compact defensive participant, Brathwaite’s solely fault was pushing his bat barely forward of his pad as a substitute of protecting it shut. It allowed the ball to use the hole to the fullest.
The dismissal got here simply when Brathwaite and an equally stodgy Jermaine Blackwood (20 off 92 balls) introduced their ultra-defensive ”A” sport to the fore including solely 40 runs in 21 overs within the post-lunch session.
The Queens Park Oval observe has actually nothing in it for bowlers and with West Indies batters intent to dam extra deliveries, creating probabilities turned all of the harder.
Having misplaced higher a part of the primary session to rain, Indian bowlers have been left excessive and dry with the observe not displaying appreciable put on and tear.
The figures of Ravindra Jadeja at that stage (25-10-37-2) was a sign sufficient that defending wasn’t troublesome as he hardly bowled any wicket-taking deliveries throughout the post-lunch session.
Ashwin additionally had his moments of frustration when he over-flighted just a few deliveries and was dispatched to the boundary.
However Jadeja had a gun slip fielder in Ajinkya Rahane, who held onto a stunner diving to his left to ship again Jermaine Blackwood as he tried to jab at a supply that took the skin fringe of his blade.
While the brand new ball was accessible, skipper Rohit Sharma continued with the previous ball as Jaydev Unadkat (0/42 in 16 overs) did get some reverse swing with out a lot luck. But it was Mohammed Siraj (20-6-48-1), who bowled one with a wobbly seam because the scuffed up facet deviated in after pitching to scrub up Da Silva.
In the morning session, debutant Mukesh Kumar was rewarded for his nagging channel bowling as his maiden wicket within the type of fellow debutant Kirk McKenzie.
Bowling a line which is true on off-stump or shade exterior of it, Mukesh bowled a supply on fuller facet with not sufficient room to chop which McKenzie (32 off 57 balls) edged it to Ishan Kishan for a regulation catch.
McKenzie, who hit 4 boundaries and a six, regarded in advantageous contact and performed with quite a lot of function throughout his 57-ball keep.
However, one man who can be itching to get into the wickets column might be veteran Saurashtra left-arm pacer Unadkat.
The home workhorse undoubtedly is the weakest hyperlink within the Indian bowling assault as he’s the one bowler who’s but to get a wicket after 98 overs.
To be truthful, his submit tea spell was the very best however bit extra tempo on a flat deck would have made him extra incisive sufficient to create issues for the batters.
With the following sequence in South Africa, Unadkat with two wicket-less Tests within the West Indies would possibly discover it extraordinarily troublesome to carry onto his place within the squad.
The distinction between him and Mukesh has been the size that the Bengal pacer discovered which is barely fuller regardless of each of them bowling on the similar tempo.
(With inputs from PTI)