India v West Indies, 2nd Test, Chennai, Day 3
Saturday, October 19, 2002

The West Indian fielding, or lack of it, was the decisive factor today. The catches – the count has gone well over a dozen for the series – continue to hurt them, and unless that aspect of their game improves, they have no chance at all of being competitive.

Harbhajan Singh was reprieved four times and both he and Javagal Srinath made West Indies pay. Once they realised that the lead was closer to 100 than the 50-odd that looked likely at close of play yesterday, the batsmen swung the bat with much more freedom. That phase of play completely tilted the game in India's favour and gave them a huge psychological edge going out to field a second time.

Credit to Wavell Hinds, though. He took his chances on a surface where he isn't entirely at ease. There was a distinct element of risk in his batting, but it was hugely important that he set the tone for the innings and gave it tempo.

Ramnaresh Sarwan and Carl Hooper played like they had worked out the mysteries of spin on Indian pitches. Hooper of course has previous experience of these conditions but for Sarwan, it was a big innings. Only the combination of a superb delivery and an excellent catch gave India a breakthrough that looked unlikely in the final session.

Hooper had batted with tremendous freedom and flair for his 43 but, for the third time in the series, he was deceived by an Indian bowler – Anil Kumble's wrong 'un joining Zaheer Khan's slower one and Harbhajan's loopy delivery on his list to forget.

Sourav Ganguly deserves enormous credit though for his complete faith in certain bowlers. When Kumble went for 19 from two overs, most expected him to be taken out of the line of fire. Instead, Ganguly merely made him switch ends, a gamble that resulted in the wicket of Hooper. It was yet another occasion on which his instincts have hit pay-dirt.

Ganguly functioned on the principle of short spells, giving his strike bowlers plenty of respite on a day that wasn't easy for the fielding side. And though Sarwan looks well capable of pushing on to that elusive first hundred, Hooper's dismissal means that India are clearly short odds to clinch the match and series.

More Expert View
Day 1
Day 2

Sanjay Manjrekar, the mainstay of India's batting in the late 1980s and early '90s, will be providing the Expert View on every day of this Test series. He was speaking to Dileep Premachandran.

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