If West Indies do edge India out in this dramatic Trinidad Test match, they'll have their new ball bowlers, Cameron Cuffy and Mervyn Dillon, to thank. The superb spells that the two men bowled with the new ball yesterday (when six wickets fell for 17 runs in 73 balls) restricted India to 218, and left the West Indies to chase 313, where 400 had been on the cards at one stage. They did it by sticking to a good line, and exploiting the Indian weakness against the short ball. Of the 73 balls sent down with the new ball, 65 were in the corridor on or outside middle stump (89.04%) and 29 were short of a length. Most of the Indian batsmen didn't get behind the line, and they paid a heavy price for it.

By contrast, India's bowlers bowled only 220 out of 296 balls in the corridor of uncertainty (74.32%). And only 52 deliveries were pitched short of a length (17.56 %). Doesn't take a genius to figure out why the West Indian quicks succeeded where India's failed.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com India.

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