The game slipped away completely from West Indies in the last hour of play. They were going well, until the last few wickets fell, one of them due to umpiring error. Asoka de Silva and Daryl Harper are supposed to be among the eight best umpires in the world. But they have been making too many mistakes. In Guyana, Carl Hooper was lbw twice to Anil Kumble and given not out. Again, in this match, Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara were plumb in front twice but were saved by the men in white. After tea today, Chanderpaul was given out to a ball pitching well outside leg. Bad umpiring has marred this series.

Lara was under tremendous pressure when he batted today. That will happen until he gets his first Test hundred in Trinidad. His innings was like Tendulkar's yesterday, not a classical knock. This is not a pitch conducive to strokeplay. You have to fight hard for your runs. We will get some good moments from top-class batsmen, but one should not expect batsmen to be in control from ball one.

I'm not sure playing four pace bowlers is a good idea on this pitch. The selectors don't seem to think much of Dinanath Ramnarine as a spinner, but he seems good enough to me. He didn't have a good series in Sharjah, but had done reasonably well before that. West Indies will miss him in the second innings.

Similarly, I don't think India needs four medium pacers in the side. They might take a wicket or two, but they are not matchwinners. Anil Kumble bowling with Harbhajan Singh would have put more pressure on the Windies batsmen.

Sourav Ganguly let the pressure on West Indies dissipate towards the end. He gave away too many easy singles to Hooper. Getting a lesser batsman like Mervyn Dillon on strike is a good idea if you have a fast bowler to blast tailenders out. But medium pacers aren't going to do that. Of course, you don't want to be bowling too much to Hooper. But at the same time, you don't want to be giving singles to every ball he faces. He must be made to struggle for his runs.

Michael Holding, a key member of the West Indies pace quartet of the 1970s and '80s, will be contributing the Wisden Verdict for all the Tests in this series. He was talking to Raja M.

More Michael Holding
Day 1: Deceived by the pitch

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