Opener Leon Johnson is poised to play his first Test in 20 months as West Indies look to further strengthen as the third Test against India was set to bowl off today amid a threat of boycott by local fans over the sacking of national icon Darren Sammy.
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Ravichandran Ashwin has been a revelation in this tour of the West Indies. For once in the series, the opening bowlers exploited the conditions and had India on the back foot for the entire morning session. India were reduced to 130/5 at one stage, after which Ashwin-Saha rescued the innings with an unbeaten century stand. Keeping him company was wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha who was batting on 93 as a resurgent India recovered to reach 316/5 after resuming at 234/5. Starting from his overnight score of 46, he started slowly taking only 6 off the first 31 balls he faced in the morning session.
The situation could have been much worse for India if not for the Ashwin-Saha partnership of 213 in 72.2 overs. However in between, Ashwin and Saha played a couple of courageous knocks that helped India reach a respectable score. But we can’t take anything away from Ashwin and Saha, as they batted very well.
After the top order left in the first two sessions of the day scoring 126 in 50 overs, Ashwin and Saha defied the combo attack by defending the wicket to build the innings from where Rahane left.
They came together at 126/5, but departed having guided India into a decent, if not quite unbeatable position. Debutan pacer Alzarri Joseph was impressive and took the prized wicket of Kohli. The bowling squad has R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for spinners, and Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and B Kumar for the fast bowling line-up. The desperation from the previous Test was gone, and with the new-found confidence, calculated gameplay had replaced it. Brathwaite made full use of it, bringing up the 100-mark in the last over of the day, and reaching his fifty off 141 balls in the same over.
Rahul and Rahane opted to play positively in seeking to steady the Indian innings and their tactics proved successful as the runs flowed at better than four runs per over, prompting West Indies captain Jason Holder to ring the changes. He was accompanied at the crease by Darren Bravo, after Johnson was run-out by KL Rahul for 23.
But, Rahul would account for Johnson eventually.
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Ashwin and Saha hit centuries before West Indies run through the tail with five wickets for 14 runs.
