Once West Indies had picked four fast bowlers, Carl Hooper had to put the opposition in. They were hoping for some assistance from the wicket on the first morning, that would help them get early wickets and bowl India out cheaply. That didn't happen. The problem with such a strategy is that the four fast bowlers West Indies have right now aren't going to blast this opposition out. They are not good enough. Given the state of West Indian pace bowling, it would have made sense if a spinner was picked. Dinanath Ramnarine hasn't done badly in his short Test career, and I find it hard to understand why the selectors keep leaving him out.

Having inserted India, it was important to maintain pressure on the opening batsmen. The fourth slip was removed in the sixth over itself. Obviously, Cameron Cuffy wanted extra protection on the off side when Carl Hooper asked him to pitch the ball up. A better option for Hooper would have been to remove the man from square leg.

When India recovered from the loss of an early wicket and were 150 for 1, Hooper would have certainly been asking himself `have I done the right thing here?' But he kept trying different things, both changing bowlers and the ends from which they bowled. It paid off.

Pedro Collins came and did the job for him, getting the two vital wickets of Wasim Jaffer and Sachin Tendulkar off successive deliveries. Collins was the pick of the West Indian bowlers today. He bowled well. It's important for a left-arm bowler bowling over the wicket to right-hand batsman to pitch the ball in line with the stumps on a good length. The batsman will have to play, as the ball is angling across his body. Both Jaffer and Tendulkar were on the move to the front foot and got the outside edge. And on such an unresponsive pitch for fast bowlers, Hooper was a happy man. He did a good job as a captain today.

Once the ball got old, it meant trouble for the fielding side on this pitch. I haven't seen anybody swing the Kookaburra ball this series, whether with the brand new ball or, reverse swinging it, with the old ball.

The Kookaburra doesn't have a prominent seam. The higher the seam on the ball, the more it will swing. The brand new ball will swing because of the bowling action. But later on, when one side of the ball is kept shiny, the ball will swing due to the air passing across the ball at different speeds over the two contrasting smoothness of surfaces. The air will pass over the shiny side a lot quicker causing the ball to swing in that direction. But if there is no prominent seam, then there is no distinct separation between the two surfaces of the ball. The wind doesn't pass through at a contrasting speed across the ball. The ball won't swing anywhere near as much as with an upright seam.

Sachin Tendulkar is just going through a bad run just like every top batsman does, sooner or later. Once he gets a start, he will put it behind him. The problem he is facing is that in his last four innings, he hasn't had that start.

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 Raja M.

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