Indian captain Sourav Ganguly felt that the absence of Anil Kumble due to a jaw-fracture was a key factor in what turned out to be a tedious, tedious draw at the Antigua Recreation Ground. "There was a lot of rough for the spinner on this track, the most I have seen in the West Indies so far. If we had a spinner, the game would have been more interesting," Ganguly said. There was praise for Kumble for coming out to bowl with a broken jaw. "It was a great effort from Anil to come out and bowl those fifteen overs. He was 20 percent fit and the way he bowled those 15 overs was amazing, you could see that there was something for the spinner. We can't do too much about it..."

It had been a terribly disappointing pitch. One on which 1142 runs came for the loss of 18 wickets over five hot days. West Indies captain Carl Hooper said that "after two good test matches in Trinidad and Barbados, I expected the game here to have a result either way. But to see not even both the first innings being completed after five days was not great."

Hooper himself regretted the fact that they had left out legspinner Dinanath Ramnarine in favour of a fourth fast bowler. "Maybe we did miss a spinner but you always seem to be wiser after the event. We went in with four fast bowlers because we thought that did the job for us. It worked for us in Barbados and we thought it would work for us here.

"I don't think this wicket was very encouraging for the quicks at all. All our tactics are based on seamers, we obviously want something that will encourage the fast bowlers. We don't want a flat track, we want a wicket where if you put something, you get something."

Amid all the drudgery of pitches and lifelessness, Ridley Jacobs found time to thank his maa for his sparky century today. Jacobs had become the second keeper in this match, and the third Antiguan on this ground, to score a century. "I honestly wanted to dedicate this to all the mothers for Mother's day [May 12]. It may have been a bit late but this is for my mother."

Rahul Bhattacharya is a staff writer with Wisden.com in India. His reports will appear here throughout the Test series.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd