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Making amends for their failures in the previous Test, Indian batsmen put up a gritty performance to place their team at a comfortable 226 for three on the opening day of the fourth cricket Test against West Indies here.
The ploy of West Indian skipper Carl Hooper to send the Indians in to bat first yesterday did not work this time and fine knocks by opener Wasim Jaffer, Rahul Dravid and captain Sourav Ganguly ensured that the tourists were headed towards a decent first innings total.
But India's progress was marred by the continued failure of opener Shiv Sunder Das and a rare first ball dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar who failed to score for the third time in four innings.
Das was out for three when the total was 13 and, after a solid 155-run partnership for the second wicket between Jaffer and Dravid, India suffered a double blow when Jaffer and Tendulkar were dismissed off successive balls. Left-arm seamer Pedro Collins took all the three wickets to fall in the day and finished with figures of three for 65 from 21 overs.
Jaffer missed a well-deserved maiden Test hundred by 14 runs after batting for well over four hours for his 86 which was studded with 14 hits to the fence. Dravid plodded throughout the day and, at 86, was looking good for his second century of the series while Ganguly, with his newly-regained form, struck a fine unbeaten 41 off 71 deliveries with four fours and a six. The two have so far added 58 runs for the fourth wicket.
Going in with four fast bowlers, Hooper did not have any hesitation in asking the Indians to take the first strike when he won his fourth toss in a row. And when Das was dismissed cheaply, West Indies once again fancied their chances of bowling out the Indians for a low total, the way they had done in the previous Test in Barbados. Das, who has been struggling in this series, was done in by the extra bounce this time and played on to his stumps in the first over of Collins.
But Jaffer continued to make an impression with his solid backfoot play. After the fluent 51 he scored in the second innings of the Barbados Test, Jaffer once again staked his claim for a permanent place in the opening slot with some fine batting.
With Dravid taking his time to settle down, it was Jaffer who did the bulk of the scoring in the morning session. And like in his previous knock, most of his runs came square of the wicket on the off-side.
Jaffer started with a square cut four off Cameron Cuffy and hit the bowler for two more boundaries before concentrating his efforts on Collins. Four hits to the fence against Collins quickly brought him in the 40s and when India took lunch at 73 for one, Jaffer was just two runs short of his second successive half-century.
It was a sort of role reversal after the interval with Dravid, who was on 21 at the break, taking over the mantle of scoring and Jaffer having to wait quite a while before reaching his fifty. Dravid square drove Mervyn Dillon for a four and then smashed three boundaries including two handsomely executed pulls off Adam Sanford to almost catch-up with his partner.
Jaffer raised his fifty with his ninth four, a flick off his toes to mid-wicket fence off Dillon, and his next boundary brought up India's 100. Dravid followed him at the milestone some time later, reaching his fifty with a cover-driven four, his eighth, off Collins. The two batsmen chugged along nicely through the post- lunch session adding 80 runs in 31 overs. Jaffer was on 80 and Dravid on 67 when tea was taken with India strongly placed at 153 for one.
Jaffer's penchant for shots square of the wicket saw West Indies placing extra fielder in that region and Collins bowled a consistent line outside the off-stump, waiting for the batsman to make a mistake. Jaffer did manage to get a boundary after tea break but his dreams of a maiden hundred were shattered immediately after that when he edged Collins to wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs. Then came the big wicket of Tendulkar who played forward only to give another edge to the wicketkeeper.
Tendulkar now has scores of 0, 0, 8 and 0 from his last four knocks after he equalled Sir Don Bradman's record of 29 Test centuries in the first innings of the second Test at Port of Spain. The two quick wickets forced the Indians on the backfoot with Dravid becoming very cautious and defensive. Ganguly however batted with confidence and was even adventurous at times as he pulled and drove with ease.
It was Ganguly who stepped up the scoring in the last half an hour of play after India had seen a lull following the two dismissals. He pulled Sanford for a six over mid-wicket and hit four boundaries as he raced into his forties.
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