Close Indians 73 for 7 (Mongia 25*, Ramnarine 3-15) trail Busta XI 437 (W Hinds 175, Smith 91) by 364 runs India's hopes of solving their batting and bowling problems ahead of the third Test against West Indies suffered a blow as they faced a follow-on in the three-day tour match here on Saturday. The tourists were 73 for 7 by the close on the second day against the Busta XI, who earlier posted an impressive 437.

India need 215 more runs with three wickets in hand to make the hosts bat again, with Dinesh Mongia unbeaten on 25 and tailender Sarandeep Singh on 1.

Legspinner Dinanath Ramnarine triggered the Indian collapse, grabbing 3 for 15 in 15 overs. Fast bowlers Pedro Collins, Darren Powell and Kerry Jeremy shared three wickets to keep the pressure on the batsmen from the other end.

The tourists went into the match looking for an opening partner for Shiv Sunder Das, but hopefuls Wasim Jaffer and Deep Dasgupta both failed to enhance their claims. India had already tried different pairs at the top in the first two Tests, with Das opening with Dasgupta at Georgetown and Sanjay Bangar at Port-of-Spain.

Their last attempt also failed as Jaffer was out lbw to Collins for 0 in his first tour match. Dasgupta did better, but not by much; he made 7 before being bowled by Ramnarine with the one that turned and kept a bit low.

Earlier, wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs exposed the Indian spin bowling with an unbeaten 55 to stake his claim for the third Test, which starts in Barbados on May 2. Jacobs hit one six and six fours in his 63-ball knock as the Indian bowlers failed to restrict the Busta XI despite taking the last five wickets for 56 runs.

Fast bowler Tinu Yohannan took the nmost wickets - three - but he proved expensive, conceding 84 runs in 19.2 overs. Medium-pacer Bangar (2 for 92), legspinner Anil Kumble (2 for 112) and offspinner Harbhajan Singh (2 for 58) also failed to make an impact as Wavell Hinds and Jacobs dominated. Hinds added 53 for the third wicket with Runako Morton (33), and was finally out for 175, off only 227 deliveries.

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