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The West Indies are three insignificant wickets away from a resounding victory in the fifth and final Cable & Wireless Test that would secure the series and administer a welcome, overdue dose of self-confidence to Carl Hooper and his team.

India, required to score an unprecedented 408 for a rare overseas triumph, were undermined yesterday by the spirited efforts of the second string West Indian fast bowlers, Pedro Collins and Adam Sanford.

Only fading light that ended play four overs early and obliged Hooper to operate with the occasional spinners, Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan, for the last seven overs prevented the Indians the ignominy of defeat in four days.

They resume this morning 237 for seven, 171 away from a target never before achieved to win a Test.

Yet, for a couple of hours in the middle session, Sachin Tendulkar batted with an authority that silenced the few thousand expectant West Indians scattered around Sabina Park and suggested the little maestro could knock off the runs all on his own.

But Collins, who was having the best day of his 11 Tests, has had the measure of the most complete batsman of his time throughout the series, twice removing him for "ducks", second ball in the second Test and first in the third.

The tireless left-armer intervened again with an even more timely strike.

By tea, Tendulkar was 82, dominating a partnership with captain Sourav Ganguly then worth 89 and joining the elite with nine other great batsmen who have reached 8 000 runs in Test cricket, aged 29 and in his 96th match.

He stroked Collins' first ball after the interval nonchalantly to the third man boundary to add to the 12 fours he accumulated before the interval, mostly with savage square-cuts and one vicious, spine-tingling cover-drive off Merv Dillon.

Collins' sixth, delivered from round the wicket, sent him back in hasty defence, kept lower than he anticipated and brushed the under edge of his bat before crashing into the middle and off-stumps.

The bowler and his teammates broke into leaping, spontaneous jubilation, the previously muted stands instantly erupted into cheering, whistle-blowing celebration and the speakers in the Red Stripe Mound boomed out the appropriate music.

Everyone knew it basically confirmed the outcome that was in little realistic doubt once the West Indies extended their lead to over 400 in the morning, with Collins to the fore with his highest Test score of 24.

Only one team has ever totalled over 400 to win a Test match – ironically India's 406 for four over the West Indies in Port-of-Spain in 1976 – and India were highly unlikely to repeat the success of Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath and others against a threadbare West Indies spin attack then.

But the sight of Tendulkar disappearing into the players' area beneath the George Headley Stand for the last time of the series was a huge relief.

The job was not done when he left – nor before he came in – and Collins and Adam Sanford, equally enthusiastic, ensured that no one else got in their way.

With Merv Dillon, the spearhead of the attack, possibly exhausted after his first innings effort of five wickets and patently listless, and Cameron Cuffy steady but no more, it was left to Collins and Sanford to fill the breach.

Collins took care of the openers and Sanford despatched Rahul Dravid, Ganguly and V.V.S.Laxman, India's three most consistent batsmen in the series.

As he so frequently does, Collins struck as soon as he replaced Cuffy after nine overs.

Wasim Jaffer stabbed his third ball firmly, but straight into the lap of Wavell Hinds at short-leg who safely pouched the catch in precisely the same place where he has taken so many since coming into the team.

In his next over, Jaffer's little partner, Shiv Sunder Das, went hesitantly forward and was ruled lbw by umpire Russell Tiffin. Since Collins was over the wicket, it was a marginal decision and the TV tramlines did indicate the ball pitched an inch or two wide of leg-stump.

By lunch, Dravid had established India's plan with a succession of positive strokes while Tendulkar bided his time.

He was looming as a definite threat when Sanford, in his best spell of the series, pinned him on the backfoot after an hour and 20 minutes for 30 and Tiffin raised the finger again for the lbw decision.

For the next hour-and-a-half, Tendulkar took centre stage with the kind of performance of which only the genuine stars are capable.

In that time, he was beaten twice outside off-stump, once by Dillon and once by Hooper's straight ball, and offered one edged shot, a slash over the leaping Brian Lara at first slip off the persevering Collins.

Otherwise, everything came from the middle of a broad bat. A hundred seemed inevitable when Collins shocked him.

There the resistance ended.

Sanford, with his bounding approach and strong action, rushes off the pitch at surprising pace and gains steep bounce. Both attributes – and a little verbal confrontation with Ganguly – set up his two wickets. Late on the shot, Ganguly hooked him straight to Sarwan at square-leg six runs after

Tendulkar's departure.

Laxman was undone mainly by the bounce, getting his shot high on the bat high to mid-wicket where Dillon stepped back to hold an excellent, two-handed catch above his head.

Cuffy showed that whatever Dillon could do he could do just as well with a tumbling take at mid-on that intercepted Harbhajan Singh's cross-batted heave that gave Gayle a bonus wicket.

Had Hooper not floored Ajay Ratra's deflection off Sanford, everyone might have had today off. But it should not be delayed long.

Tendulkar's wicket capped a dream day for Collins.

A novice No. 9 right-handed batsman whose highest Test score was 13, he had already made a significant contribution by remaining through the last hour and 25 minutes the previous afternoon with Shivnarine Chanderpaul to halt a spirited Indian comeback in a stand of 43.

With a mixture of authentic strokes and tailender's heaves, Collins moved from four to 24 after Chanderpaul drove a return catch to Zaheer Khan after adding only five to his overnight 54.

They were enough to send the lead above the psychologically satisfying 400. Then he went to work with the ball.

© Barbados Nation