“In bowling we replaced Umesh Yadav with Bhuvi because we felt that since the ground is so good it would be easier to maintain the shine on the ball”. When India’s top order folded on a pitch that had plenty in it for the fast bowlers, with Rohit making just nine and Kohli three, that sense was reinforced.
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File image of Virat Kohli.
India has one more Test match in the West Indies, with the fourth and final Test set to commence in Trinidad on Thursday.
Manjrekar expected West Indies’ fight from the second Test to be carried forward in this series but it was not so in St Lucia.
India had declared their second innings at 217/7 and then bowled out West Indies for just 108 runs after they were faced with 87 overs to bat out.
WEST INDIES (Ist innings): Kraigg Brathwale c Saha b Ashwin 64, Leon Johnson run out 23, Darren Bravo c Jadeja b Ishant Sharma 29, Marlon Samuels b Bhuveneshwar Kumar 48, Blackwood c d c Kohli b Bhuveneshwar Kumar 20, Roston Chase c Ajinkya Rahane b Jadeva 2, Dorwich c Shikhar Dhawan b Bhuvneshwar Kumar 18, Jason Holder lbw Bhuvenshwar Kumar 2, A Joseph c Rahul b Bhuvneshwar Kumar 0, Miguel Cummins c Saha b Ashwin 0, Shannon Gabriel not out 0.
“Bhuvneshwar Kumar was unbelievable in the afternoon, and picking up 5 wickets for 28 runs on that pitch in 24 overs was a great spell”. He was so accurate that Kohli did not need a fielder behind square on the leg side, despite the movement Kumar was getting. Jadeja popped up on stage too, taking the big wicket of Royston Chase, the man who had denied India victory in the second Test. Then the floodgates opened and Rohit scored his next 34 runs from 32 deliveries. India had a sniff.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the highest impact bowler for his six wickets (which included four top/middle-order victims). Flexibility is a quality he wants his team to possess. “The team can be very proud of what they have achieved”. But we haven’t been able to put ourselves in those situations, to be quite frank.
“I am pretty happy with that position”, he said when asked about batting at first drop. But I am not fixated by my batting spot. We got seven wickets for 31 runs (on 4th day) and that was the game-changer. For simplicity, we are changing the scale here in the report and expressing every Match Impact number as a percentage. “In the situation, the batsmen at the top need to come to the party and be a lot more consistent”, Holder said after the end of the match. “But we realised that if we have to seal the series here then we had to make changes according to the conditions”, the skipper said.
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With two centuries so far in the series and both coming when India were in a state of bother, Ashwin has been exceptionally well in the series so far.
