It was pleasing to see the West Indian batsmen show such application today, though progress was tardy at times. There were several phases when the runs dried up, but I believe that was a result of India scoring only 102 yesterday. If West Indies had a larger total to overhaul, they would have shown much more urgency. As it was, the two big partnerships – between Ramnaresh Sarwan and Brian Lara, and Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Carl Hooper - were important because they shut India out each time they glimpsed a chance. It's definitely a cause for concern though that Sarwan and Lara gave it away after getting solid starts. The West Indies tail haven't been able to cobble together even a dozen runs in recent times, making it all the more important that the top batsmen, once set, go on to get big scores. Apart from the team perspective, it's also important for each individual. You don't want to be known as someone who gets out for 50s and 60s, you want to be recognized as a batsman that makes hundreds. The more heavily you score, the more fearful the opposition is when you come to the crease.

The longer Sarwan goes without making a hundred, the more the burden of expectation that he will have to carry. But I really believe that once he breaks through and gets that first hundred, he can go on and make many more. Everyone that has observed him reckons that he will be a future great and I think he will prove them all right. He has a great technique for one so young and his only problem now is that inability to carry on from a good start.

Just from watching Lara, it's obvious that he's not in the greatest of form. After coming back from injury, he had only a couple of practice games before the series. His form just isn't right at the moment, hence the struggle for runs. You sense that the right arm needs to heal fully before he can bat with his usual fluency and flair.

The third umpire's decision to rule Hooper not out was just poor. Billy Doctrove had the benefit of several replays and freeze frames and he alone knows how Hooper escaped the red light. I think it's time that cricket went the football way. If a referee does badly at a World Cup, he's just struck off the list. Unless there is similar accountability in cricket, such mistakes will continue to mushroom, and people like Eddie Nichols (at Port-of-Spain) and Doctrove will get off scot-free.

West Indies should go on and win this match from here. I get the feeling that India came here expecting to lose, despite their victory in Trinidad. Their record at Barbados is so poor that one feels that might just leave here thinking, "Well, at least we're still in the series with Bridgetown out of the way".

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 Dileep Premachandran.

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