Close West Indies 494 for 7 (Hooper 233, Chanderpaul 140)
scorecard

A glorious innings of 233 from Carl Hooper banished the clouds at the Bourda Oval on a day when West Indies took a cast-iron grip on the opening Test match against India. His memorable knock spanned most of the first two days and it ended moments before the rain-clouds had their final decisive say, with 21.3 overs still to be bowled on the second one. This was no one-man show, though, and Hooper's fellow Guyanese Shivnarine Chanderpaul had played his part with a superb knock of 140. The pair added 293 runs in just over three sessions and effectively batted India out of the match.

Hooper's magnum opus ended on a discordant note. Having deposited the previous delivery from Kumble over the scoreboard and into the practice ground adjoining the Bourda, he went for an encore. But Kumble had pitched this one a fraction shorter and flighted it more. Sarandeep Singh ran in from the square-leg boundary to take an excellent catch.

It was scant consolation for Kumble, after Hooper, going along as serenely as Tennyson's brook, had held the spectators in thrall with some magical strokeplay after tea. In one Kumble over, he lofted him down to long-off for four before sending the next ball over the rope at deep midwicket. When Srinath came back for another spell, he smashed a full delivery back over the bowler's head, one bounce and over the fence.

There was plenty to celebrate for the 8000 or so spectators, as both Hooper and Chanderpaul motored past their previous highest Test scores. After almost four hours of fruitless toil today, it was Zaheer Khan who got the breakthrough for India. He trapped Chanderpaul in front for 140 after he shuffled across his stumps and played across the delivery (450 for 5). Zaheer then picked up Junior Murray second ball after tea. Murray had been fortunate in the extreme to be reprieved earlier, but he didn't make the most of it. This delivery pitched just outside the line of leg stump but struck him in line. Up went umpire Asoka de Silva's finger and Murray had to trudge away, his luck for the day all used up.

Chanderpaul had suffered in the afternoon heat, taking a couple of breaks and seeking help from the physio, but he still found the energy to belt boundaries when the bowlers erred in line or length. He did enjoy a slice of good fortune though, when some Road Runner-like sprinting saw him escape a run-out. Hooper played the ball to mid-on and set off. Chanderpaul collided with Tendulkar, dropped his bat, but ran on and dived into the crease like Superman in full flight to beat Sourav Ganguly's throw to Deep Dasgupta.

The duo weren't quite as ebullient as they were before lunch but the runs came along without too much fuss. Hooper was severe on Tendulkar's spin experiments, cutting him powerfully past point once and then spanking a full-toss past midwicket. He went past his previous-highest Test score - 178 not out against Pakistan at St John's in 1992-93 - when he pulled Kumble past midwicket for four and he was just as ruthless with Sarandeep Singh, playing a scorching off-drive, followed by a beautifully executed front-foot sweep for four.

Ten minutes later, Hooper picked out Sarandeep again as he brought up only the third double-hundred in Tests here. He came down the track and lofted him down to the fence at deep midwicket to spark off absolute bedlam in the stands.

Chanderpaul's conversion-rate when it came to fifties and hundreds is almost as bad as Stephen Fleming's, but this morning some lackadaisical fielding helped him along to three figures. He was on 94 when he edged a drive off Kumble, newly introduced into the attack. It went to VVS Laxman's right at first slip - the sort of chance that the likes of Mark Waugh gobble up with nonchalance - but he couldn't even get a fingertip to it, and the ball rolled on to the boundary. Chanderpaul then worked the next delivery off his pads to deep midwicket, scampering three runs before kneeling down to touch his forehead to his hometown turf.

India's approach by that time was completely defensive, with Sanjay Bangar bowling to an 8-1 off-side field. But it made little difference to Hooper. He drove Bangar imperiously through midwicket for two fours, and then launched into a sublime straight-drive that rocketed past the bowler before he was done with his follow-through. West Indies had begun the morning in sedate and watchful fashion. They took 25 minutes to add to the fours tally, with a chunky off-drive from Chanderpaul off Srinath that sped to the long-off boundary. After that, the pace picked up and a crashing cut brought Chanderpaul his 3000th Test run.

It was somehow fitting that the heavens opened after Hooper walked back to the pavilion. Perhaps it was the gods shedding tears for a sublime effort cut short. After 15 years of playing like the profligate genius, Hooper chose his home ground to show off the beauty of his craft. It was worth waiting for.

Teams
West Indies 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Stuart Williams, 3 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 4 Brian Lara, 5 Carl Hooper (capt), 6 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 7 Junior Murray (wk), 8 Mahendra Nagamootoo, 9 Cameron Cuffy, 10 Mervyn Dillon, 11 Adam Sanford.

India 1 Shiv Sunder Das, 2 Deep Dasgupta (wk), 3 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Rahul Dravid, 6 VVS Laxman, 7 Sanjay Bangar, 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Javagal Srinath, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Sarandeep Singh.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com India.

Day 1 Bulletin

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