Pedro Collins was the star of the day. Shivnarine Chanderpaul went early this morning, but that did not rattle Collins. He had played a defensive role in his partnership with Chanderpaul yesterday, but once he lost his partner, he changed gears. He played some lovely attacking strokes off the fast bowlers, and ensured a lead of over 400 runs for West Indies. This was definitely his finest innings in Test cricket. West Indies had the match in their grasp after setting India a target of 408. The Indian top order did not quite crumble in the second innings, as they had in the first, and Sachin Tendulkar batted extremely well. Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly put India in a good position by tea, and a few people might have given them a chance. I did not believe that India would win. They have chased over 400 to win a Test before, but these things happen once in many, many blue moons, and I gave them no chance whatsoever.

It was not Mervyn Dillon this time, but Collins and Adam Sanford who did the damage. It's good to see these two shouldering some responsibility, and this is an encouraging sign for West Indies cricket. Sanford and Collins bowled exceptionally well, and a few uncharacteristic shots from VVS Laxman and Ganguly made matters a lot easier for them. West Indies have gelled together as a team, and this has been a prominent factor of their success in this series. However, it is still much easier to win at home, and I would like to see this team perform well away from the Caribbean.

Ramnaresh Sarwan bowled some tidy overs of legspin towards the end of the day. He seems to be learning the craft of legspin bowling, and should spend some time practicing it in the nets. His bowling could come in handy for West Indies in the future.

West Indies will be keeping their celebrations on hold until they complete the last rites tomorrow morning. It has been a truly professional performance by Carl Hooper's men, and they thoroughly deserve to win this test series.

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 Dhruv Mullick.

More Michael Holding
Day 1 Verdict Hinds showed his quality
Day 2 Verdict It could have been better
Day 3 Verdict Getting better all the time

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