Another defeat for West Indies. It's frustrating not because they lost – one accepts being beaten by a better team – but because they cannot sit down tonight and say that they did their best. Sure, India applied themselves better on the day; but West Indies's approach contributed equally to their defeat. To begin with, we saw a totally different Brian Lara today. He inexplicably went into a shell, and didn't play positively. It was best reflected in him telling the crowd this morning to stop playing music because he needed to concentrate. Lara has been called upon to make runs in pressure situations many times, but something like this has never happened before in the West Indies.

At the other extreme, some of the other batsmen batted too carelessly. One culprit was Chris Gayle, who got out playing a shot totally out of the context of the game. He got too relaxed mentally after getting his fifty, and threw away the advantage West Indies had gained due to his partnership with Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

At times, West Indies lacked aggression. For example, their bowlers weren't hostile enough when bowling to tailenders. West Indian bowlers got a few short ones when they batted today, and Cameron Cuffy got hit in the head by Javagal Srinath. Hopefully, they will remember that when they bowl next to the Indians.

West Indies will suffer a psychological backlash from this defeat. It would have been a big boost for them had they won. Getting 313 batting on the last day would have lifted the whole team. Now, a lot of them might be thinking, "It's the same old story".

This particular West Indian team is not getting affected by off-field distractions and indiscipline as was the case with them three or four years ago. They have just got into a losing habit, which is hard to get out of.

Among Indian performances today, Javagal Srinath bowled beautifully. He was superb with the old ball, came back with the new ball and was in action almost throughout the day.

I was very impressed with Ashish Nehra. He swings the ball back at right-handed batsmen, a very difficult ball for them to face. And he has reasonable pace. He skids the ball off the pitch. Not being a big strong man, he isn't going to bowl too much faster than what he is now, but he is a lot quicker than most people think. He will do well in the next Test, in Barbados.

Pitches are different across the West Indies because of the different soil in the islands. The Trinidad soil is more powdery. That's why pitches here play so low and slow. Barbados, being a coral island, has soil that is much harder, and the pitch there is consequently fast and bouncy. I don't see India playing an extra spinner there if they didn't do that here in Trinidad.

Fortunately India won. Otherwise people would have gone on and on about the controversial decision by third umpire Eddie Nicholls. I could not understand how he ruled Chanderpaul not out. TV replays were clear that wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra had taken the catch cleanly and the ball hadn't bounced after passing the bat. Those were the only two aspects he was allowed to consider. If other considerations influenced his decision, then he obviously isn't a good umpire. The ICC must make sure such lapses do not recur.

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 4: The winning habit
Day 3: More Indian than West Indian
Day 2: Umpiring mishaps
Day 1: Deceived by the pitch

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd