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 The presence of leg-spinner Anil Kumble could have turned the match in India’s favour, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly said yesterday at the end of the fourth cricket Test which ended in a draw here.
“Kumble was 20 per cent fit, and he made a great effort. It was hard work for the bowlers,” Ganguly said.
India, after making 513 for nine declared in their first innings, looked forward to Kumble to do the damage on a docile pitch but their hopes were dashed when the spinner suffered a injury while batting.
In an inspiring spell of 14 overs he bowled on the third evening, Kumble dismissed Brian Lara and almost had Carl Hooper but the fracture in the jaw did not allow him to play any part in the match on the last two days.
But for Kumble’s injury while batting, West Indian captain Carl Hooper’s decision to insert India in after winning the toss almost backfired for the hosts.
“India had a poor batting performance in Barbados, and we wanted to put them under pressure. But the wicket turned out to be a belter,” was how Hooper chose to put it.
Avoiding the follow-on after India had made a huge total, Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s continuing good form with the bat and wicketkeepr Ridley Jacobs finding his own were the positives coming out of the match for the West Indies, Hooper added.
Ajay Ratra was named man-of-the-match for his maiden Test hundred. “It was a great pleasure to score a century overseas. The coach worked on me, the captain gave me the confidence and Laxman motivated me a lot when I was batting.”
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