India hold slender lead over West Indies

Sharma polishes off tail to take six for 55.

BRIDGETOWN:

India’s Ishant Sharma mopped up the West Indies tail to capture his 100th Test wicket before fickle weather threatened the chances of a result after a rain-interrupted third day of the second Test.

Sharma bowled superbly on a lively Kensington Oval pitch which suited the quicker bowlers to finish with career-best figures of six for 55, including the last two wickets in successive balls to remain on a hat-trick, and reach the 100 wicket milestone in just his 33rd Test appearance.

The lanky paceman polished off the last three wickets to restrict West Indies to 190 and give India a narrow first-innings lead of 11 runs before the foul Caribbean weather brought play to an early halt.

“We’re going to just go out there and score as many runs and take as many wickets as we can,” said Sharma addressing a news conference.

The visitors, who have never won a Test in Barbados, extended their advantage to 34 runs by the close after reaching 23 without loss in their second-innings.

Abhinav Mukund was unbeaten on eight with Murali Vijay on three after their innings was delayed first by a tropical storm, then bad light as the umpires called an early end to proceedings.

Super Samuels

West Indies’ Marlon Samuels replaced sacked vice-captain Brendan Nash and is playing just his second Test since serving a two-year ban for giving information to bookmakers – a charge he has always denied – and repaid the selectors’ faith  by scoring an unbeaten 78, only to run out of partners.

“The first match I played in two years I got 55 then I got left out [of the next match] in Jamaica,” said Samuels.

“It made a hotter fire inside of me. Now, I’ve got this opportunity, I want to take it with both hands.”

Samuels shared a vital sixth wicket stand of 77 with Shivnarine Chanderpaul, dismissed for 37 in the penultimate over of the morning session, after the home side slumped to 57 for five and were in danger of falling well short of the tourists’ total.

“We did very well to bowl them out for 200, we didn’t pass their total and they’ve got a lead of 30 something now, but I guess it’s game on now because it’s a low scoring game,” said Samuels.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2011.