Close India 169 for 4 (Ganguly 15*, Laxman 30*) and 102 all out (Ganguly 48, Dillon 4-41) trail West Indies 394 all out (Hooper 115, Chanderpaul 101*, Nehra 4-112) by 123 runs
scorecard

After playing hide-and-seek earlier in the day, India's Barbados curse struck again. In a devastating period of play after tea, West Indies grabbed four wickets for 38 runs, including Sachin Tendulkar (18)and Rahul Dravid (14) in two overs. An 80-run opening partnership lay wasted and India looked set to lose their seventh Test in eight visits to Barbados with a day to spare.

Things weren't quite so bad in the morning, when West Indies lost their last six first-innings wickets for 18 runs. Then Wasim Jaffer and SS Das laid the foundation of what appeared to to augur for a spirited Indian fightback.

Jaffer led the way, hitting a stroke-filled 51 in the post-lunch session. He was imperious off the back foot, standing up tall and spanking the bowling in the arc between extra cover and backward point. A powerful punch through the covers off Pedro Collins took him to his highest score in Tests, ahead of the 23 he made against South Africa in 1999-2000. He smashed ten boundaries in all, most of them breathtakingly beautiful, reminiscent of VVS Laxman at his elegant best.

The partnership ended with a run-out before tea as Das pushed Cameron Cuffy straight to Shivnarine Chanderpaul at point, took off for a single and Jaffer failed to beat the throw (80 for 1). With Dravid at the crease and looking in no hurry, the game seemed to be in a late afternoon snooze, until West Indies broke through and a familiar story unfolded.

Das flicked Mervyn Dillon ferociously towards the midwicket fence, but Ramnaresh Sarwan was in the way at forward short leg. The ball crashed into his stomach and, incredibly, stuck (101 for 2). Das had played scrappily and had enjoyed quite a few strokes of luck during his 138-ball vigil, even being dropped once by Stuart Williams off Dillon; ultimately, his luck ran out.

Sachin Tendulkar came in, and scored for the first time in three Test innings, clipping Dillon to midwicket for two off the second ball he faced. India's two best batsmen were now at the crease. Then the Barbados curse struck in the 47th and 48th over of the innings as Tendulkar and Dravid both fell within a run of each other. Hopes of a fifth day's play rapidly vanished like rum in Trini Posse hands.

Dravid was the first to go, for 14, reaching out to drive a sucker ball outside off from Adam Sanford. A diving Ridley Jacobs took the edge low in front of Brian Lara at first slip (117 for 3). Bigger disaster struck India in the next over as umpire Asoka de Silva ruled Tendulkar out lbw to the second ball of Dillon's 17th over (118 for 4). There was an element of doubt about whether the incoming ball would have passed over Tendulkar's stumps. De Silva though had no doubts, instantly raising his index finger.

With that double blow, West Indies had effectively erased embarrassing pre-lunch memories when it had seemed that a traffic policeman might be needed to direct rapid movement to and from the West Indian dressing room. The last four wickets added just two runs as West Indies imploded yet again, this time from 376 for 4 to 394 all out. It included three ducks, a missed Harbhajan hat trick, the continuation of the wicketkeeper curse in this series (Ridley Jacobs suffered a duck on his comeback) and a hilarious Cameroon Cuffy run-out when he dived desperately in the middle of the pitch while Ajay Ratra removed the bails to end the innings. Cuffy had his revenge later with the ball, bowling an amazing spell to end the day with figures of 18-15-3-0.

Carl Hooper (115) had begun the West Indian slide after completing his first-ever hundred at the Kensington Oval. He mishit an attempted hoick off Harbhajan Singh, and was taken nicely by a tumbling Tendulkar at mid-off (376 for 5).

Thereafter, recent history repeated itself but not before Shivnarine Chanderpaul (101*) managed to reach his second hundred of the series even as his batting partners were changing with bewildering rapidity. Harbhajan finshed with 3 for 85, which should boost his morale somewhat. That's more than what can be said for India's over-hyped batting strength.

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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