Close West Indies 314 for 4 (Hooper 70*, Chanderpaul 75*) lead India 102 all out (Ganguly 48, Dillon 4-41) by 212 runs
scorecard

West Indies piled on a 212 run lead by stumps on an agonizing second day for India. The Indians battled grimly, fielding hard and bowling tight in spells. But at the end of the day, rain and unlikely second-innings heroics were all India could hope for to salvage the Test.

Few rewards came India's way in an extended day's play at Kensington Oval that saw the game going past 6.00pm local time. Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul consolidated West Indian gains with an unbeaten fifth-wicket partnership of 153 runs. They built on the fine 119-run partnership that Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan had put together for the third wicket.

However, umpiring mishaps again caused more intense comment than cricketing feats today. West Indian third umpire Billy Doctrove ruled Carl Hooper not out when TV replays clearly showed that he was run out. He had not regained the crease after Shivnarine Chanderpaul's straight-drive hit the stumps, taking a deflection off bowler Ashish Nehra's outstretched palm on the way; a decision that recalled images of the high drama of the last-wicket fiasco in Trinidad. West Indies were 220 for 4 at that stage.

Following Billy Doctrove's shocker, umpire Darryl Harper rubbed salt into India's wounds by refusing an lbw appeal against Hooper that appeared to be plumb. The bowler, once again, was Nehra.

One would never have thought India would end the day so badly after the start they got off to early in the first session, when Zaheer Khan trapped Chris Gayle lbw in his first over of the day. Early promise did not lead to deliverance, however, as Lara and Sarwan batted solidly, to ensure that the match did not slip from their grasp.

By lunch, West Indies had added 82 runs to their overnight total, without losing any further wickets. The three Indian seamers had failed to make headway, forcing Sourav Ganguly to bring himself on in a peculiar bowling spell that had him bowling five consecutive maiden overs, pitching it on a consistently negative line. When Harbhajan Singh was brought on late in the morning, he failed to put the batsmen under any pressure. Lara had begun quite scratchily earlier in the morning, and Ganguly lost a chance to unleash Harbhajan on him in that imporatnt passage of play. By the time Harbhajan came on, Lara had settled in.

If the pre-lunch session belonged to West Indies, the see-saw post-lunch session saw India get back into the match, courtesy a double strike from Nehra. He sent back Lara and Sarwan in successive overs in a new spell. The two batsmen had got past their fifties and they looked to be pummeling India out of the match. Then, as is the wont of batsmen of both these sides, they gifted their wickets away.

Lara played across the line to a delivery that was well pitched up from Ashish Nehra, who comfortably snaffled the return catch to the dismay of a crowd that was just beginning to buzz happily after a sudden flurry of strokes from Lara. In Nehra's next over, Sarwan played a loose drive to a widish ball outside off stump to be caught by a jubilant Wasim Jaffer at gully. Sarwan's 11th fifty, and his conversion rate remained struck at zero per cent.

Ganguly stayed positive throughout the day as West Indies trundled along. He aggressively fielded two slips, a gully and a single-saving off-side cordon. But to little avail. The second new ball failed to separate Hooper and Chanderpaul, as West Indies went on, and on and on.

Hooper and Chanderpaul made merry against a tired Indian bowling attack late in the day. Srinath, Nehra, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan toiled manfully, but with little reward; they had bowled worse for better figures on other days. Harbhajan ended the day wicketless, with the three seamers sharing the few spoils in the innings.

About the only bright spot for India today was that they got Brian Lara short of a big score again. But if Hooper and Chanderpaul aren't separated early tomorrow, that will count for nothing.

Teams
India 1 SS Das, 2 Wasim Jaffer, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 6 VVS Laxman, 7 Ajay Ratra (wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Javagal Srinath, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Ashish Nehra.

West Indies 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Stuart Williams, 3 Brian Lara, 4 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 5 Carl Hooper (capt), 6 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 7 Ridley Jacobs (wk), 8 Mervyn Dillon, 9 Cameron Cuffy, 10 Pedro Collins, 11 Adam Sanford.

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