On a rainy, often thumping, and always pleasant, Friday at Bourda, Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul gave their home crowds cause to sway, drink, be generally merry, and chew upon the possibility of a one-nil lead in the five-match series. There was Hooper, understatedly majestic in a career-high 233, and there was a young, once-precocious, man who looks as if he never emerged out of his teens. Chanderpaul readily contrasts Hooper. Hooper is right-handed and gorgeous, Shiv bats with his left and is best described on Wisden.com's player pages as "crabby." Together, they put on 293 and erased a 49-year-old record: that of the fifth wicket for West Indies against India.

Chanderpaul thinks simple, not believing himself to be any symbol of East Indianism in these parts. "If anybody wants to be like me, that's good. I wouldn't single out any race, I'm not like that."

The crab done good. He carved 140 between last evening and this afternoon and upped his century-to-fifty ratio from one in 11.5 to one in 8.33. He must trust the gods, he feels, and he will reap the rewards. "You need a little more concentration, you need to have faith in the Lord and hopefully, with him by my side, I will get some more."

It was his third hundred, his third at home, and his second at his real home, Bourda, where he now averages 106 in six Tests. "It's great to get a Test century, you know. Especially at home where you have the full support of the crowd and your friends and family, and everyone you know is here."

He confesses he's a stats man. He was aware that his average had dipped below 40 in recent times. "It came down to 38 or so and it bothered me a bit. I'm a person who would like to keep it up there." He's 39.92 now and he knows it.

His career began at an average of 62, and stayed above 60 after ten Tests. But there had been injuries, in the back and in the foot, and they were accompanied by a loss of form and a growing belief in cricket circles that he is a hypochondriac, and enjoys a bit of pampering on tour. The variety of factors led him to miss six of the last 11 Tests that West Indies have played, and 17 in the last three years.

For these reasons, it's been a memorable hundred for Chanderpaul. "It's a lean season that I've been going through. You're out of cricket because of injury, then you come back to cricket, and it takes time to get back into nick. It feels really great to get my highest Test score now."

For all that, the enduring image of the day remains that of Hooper flicking Anil Kumble against the spin for six at wide long-on, and of Hooper getting down on bended knee and goading Anil Kumble for six over the scoreboard at square leg. What can you do, Hooper pleases the eye, and Chanderpaul makes it look sweaty. But his runs matter.

Rahul Bhattacharya is a staff writer with Wisden.com India. His reports will appear here throughout the Test series.

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