West Indies' fast bowlers had a simple mantra to demolish the Indian batting line-up on a fast and bouncy Kensington Oval – keep the ball short or on good length, and give the batsmen no easy half-volleys to put away. Out of the 206 balls it took to run through the Indian side, only 21 were on a full length, off which 26 runs were scored. Of the remaining 185 deliveries, just 82 were good-length balls. That's a mere 44.3%. The West Indian all-pace attack liberally peppered the Indians with the short stuff – as many as 103 balls were short of a length.

Cameron Cuffy had consistently bowled more than 80% of his deliveries on a good length in the first two Tests; here, it came down to 54%. Adam Sanford's figures were shocking – out of the 36 balls he bowled, 28 were pitched short, and only 4 were on good length. The tactic paid him rich dividends though: all three of his wickets came off short deliveries, and he ended up with figures of 3 for 20.

The Indian batsmen managed only 35 runs off the front foot –just 34% of their total. With the line being pretty accurate too – 75% on middle stump or further off side – the Indian batsmen were mostly confronted with short deliveries around off stump. On a juicy track, it proved to be too much to handle.

S Rajesh is sub editor of Wisden.com India.

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