Close West Indies 165 for 7 (Chanderpaul 55*, Collins 4*) and 422 lead India 212 all out (Laxman 65*, Dillon 5-71) by 375 runs
scorecard

An enthralling day's play ended with West Indies firmly in control. They led by 375 runs, with three second-innings wickets still in hand. With the pitch showing increasing signs of variable bounce, India looked out of the game.

On a day when 13 wickets fell for 236 runs, the bowlers fought back bravely for India after they had been bowled out for 212, and reduced West Indies to 122 for 7. Then came the partnership of the innings – heartbreaking for India, heroic for West Indies. Shivnarine Chanderpaul – stodge-maestro supreme – found an able ally in Pedro Collins, and the two added 43 priceless runs for the eighth wicket, frustrating the rampaging Indian bowlers for over an hour.

It was a masterful exhibition of batting with the tail by Chanderpaul, who ended the day unbeaten on 55. When Sourav Ganguly spread out the field, Chanderpaul took cleverly placed twos; when the fielders came in, he found the gaps to get the single, and occasionally, the odd four. Collins provided stout resistance too, getting behind the line and playing with a straight bat. He faced 24 balls before he got off the mark, but that hardly bothered him.

A West Indian revival looked unlikely when India ran through the top order, after conceding a first-innings lead of 210 runs. Javagal Srinath had been lacklustre in the first innings, but he was purposeful in the second, keeping the ball in the corridor and getting past Chris Gayle's outside edge repeatedly. He had his reward soon enough, though it was Wavell Hinds who departed first, edging to VVS Laxman at second slip for 6 (17 for 1).

Gayle fell soon, flailing loosely at Javagal Srinath and spooning an easy catch to Sourav Ganguly at gully for 15 (24 for 2). Srinath, who had struggled to get among the wickets after the second Test, suddenly had two wickets from five overs.

West Indies slipped further when Ramnaresh Sarwan scooped a cover-drive to SS Das for 12 (38 for 3), and when Carl Hooper nicked Zaheer Khan to the keeper for 6 – his first single-digit score of the series. India had made an impressive comeback.

Brian Lara got off to an edgy start, but showed glimpses of his form with a couple of flowing drives and pulls. He raced to 35 off just 45 balls, when Zaheer struck again, forcing him to inside edge a good-length delivery on to his stumps (81 for 5). Ridley Jacobs was given an early reprieve – Rahul Dravid dropped a sitter at first slip off Zaheer when the batsman was on 1 – but he failed to make the most of it. He'd made a subdued 16 off 32, when he nicked one off his glove to substitute fielder Dinesh Mongia at short leg – the second time in the match that he had fallen to Harbhajan Singh (117 for 6).

It soon became 122 for 7 when Dillon missed a hopeless slog off Ashish Nehra, and had his off stump rattled. The Indian players would have sensed a real opportunity at that stage, but Chanderpaul found an unlikely partner in Collins. He had made eight ducks in 16 previous innings, but showed wonderful spirit here.

Earlier, India's first innings folded up without much resistance shortly after lunch. The morning session had started encouragingly for India, as Ganguly and VVS Laxman played out the first 40 minutes with scarcely a false stroke. Both batsmen played close to their body and showed excellent judgement around the off stump.

Then, Dillon breached Ganguly's defence - Jacobs snaffled him for a well-made 36 (168 for 5) - and it went rapidly downhill from there, as India lost their last six wickets for 44 runs in a sickeningly familiar lower-order collapse. Much was expected of Ratra after his fighting century in Antigua, but he fell tamely, fending a short ball to Hinds at short leg for 3 (178 for 6).

The most inexplicable passage of play came soon after. Zaheer walked out after Harbhajan's dismissal and got into wild-hoick mode despite having a well-set Laxman at the other end. Zaheer was lucky twice in a Collins over, but that experience – and Laxman's advice at the end of that over – seemed to have made him no wiser. He charged at Cameron Cuffy in the next over and presented Lara at cover with a simple catch (194 for 8). It was cricketing suicide. Zaheer redeemed himself somewhat with his spirited bowling, but that was still no justification for his thoughtless effort with the bat.

Laxman batted through the collapse with the assurance and solidity that one has come to expect of him in this series. He reached a well-deserved half-century before running out of partners. Dillon was the star for West Indies, finishing with a five-for and boosting his tally for the series to 22 wickets.

Despite conceding the big lead, India's bowlers brought them back into the contest, till Chanderpaul and Collins defied them. That unbeaten 43-run partnership might well have shut India out of the match.

Teams
West Indies 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Wavell Hinds, 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.

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.

S Rajesh is sub editor of Wisden.com in India.

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