Shivnarine Chanderpaul's batting on the fifth day was inexplicable. That the match would end in a draw was a foregone conclusion, Ridley Jacobs was speeding along at the other end, and part-timers were bowling. Yet, Chanderpaul struggled. In the 242 balls that he faced, he scored 56 runs – a strike-rate of 23 runs every 100 balls. He was understandably circumspect in the morning session as he neared his century, but instead of moving up a gear, he slowed down even further after reaching his hundred. In the first session, his scoring-rate was 32%. In the last two, it plummeted to a miserable 18.6% - that's 1.1 runs per over.

The difference between his batting today and yesterday – when he scored 80 runs off 268 balls – was the way he dealt with the loose balls. Yesterday, he scored at a rate of 72% off deliveries which were either too full or too short; today, it was down to 47%.

Chanderpaul's dour attitude against some of the part-time bowlers was bizarre: against Wasim Jaffer's gentle offspinners, he scored 4 runs off 31 balls; he managed 11 off 60 balls from VVS Laxman.

Chanderpaul has admitted to being a stats person, and this innings served nicely to prop up his career average from 41.57 to 43.32. His average in this series is a phenomenal 222.50. A marginally better scoring-rate, and he would have got his highest Test score too, which now remains the 140 he got in the first Test of this series.

S Rajesh is sub editor of Wisden.com India.

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