West Indies v India - Official Fourth Test Match Thread

[Vrock]

Jamaica hosts the final Test which starts on Friday, the two sides will both be looking to take the only victory now available in the series.

The West Indies will be looking to once again find their first innings batting form the last Test which gave them the potential to enforce the follow-on. In the bowling department, what appeared to be selection blunders were clouded over with the draw but if the pitch does look like offering something to the spin bowlers I would hope that we see a decent spinner playing rather than Ramnaresh Sarwan.

India's pace bowlers have so far this series impressed on what, most of the time, were very unhelpful pitches. Munaf Patel particuarly has looked excellent at times and he and Sri Sreesanth will be looking forward to continuing their attack on the West Indian batsmen. With Sachin Tendulkar's return to Test matches looking to be sooner rather than later the Indian middle order batsmen will want to be scoring as many runs as they can, if one of them sets up a victory or even saves the match with a great knock then they could be booking their place in the batting order with Sachin in the future.

The weather has interrupted the last two matches, I hope that we don't see a hat-trick of rain affected matches so that we get the highest possibility of a result

[Vrock]

If we don't get a result on this pitch I don't know when these two sides will ever get another chance.

Both of the Indian openers are gone, having elected to bat, on a Kingston wicket that is swinging the most we have seen all series and it's enough for the batsmen to be playing and missing most of the time.

Potential for four/five down at the lunch break given that two wickets have fallen in the first four overs!

One major downer for the West Indies, Ramnaresh Sarwan was struck on the kneecap at short leg as Wasim Jaffer pulled a short-ish delivery from Pedro Collins and creamed it right into Sarwan. It looked extremely painful and he's been taken off the field - even if he does bat he will be seriously limited in movement, surely a runner would be required.

Edit: Both teams have named unchanged sides.

[Vrock]

The scoring of the Indian batsmen is somewhat steady to say the least. Corey Collymore has 7-4-3-0!

Proper test cricket it seems - here's to the pitch flattening out for a few days then spinning a bit and hopefully seeing one side prevail.

[DomainK]

Yeah Vrock, if weather spares this one, we will have a result for sure. This is not the kind of pitch where batsmen can go on making runs. I wonder how the pitch will behave as the match gets into the second and the third day. India are already in trouble and I will take 200 as a good first innings score.

[Vrock]

Originally Posted by DomainK

India are already in trouble and I will take 200 as a good first innings score.

I agree with that but India are now 6 wickets down with less than 100 runs on the board. Only Dravid left as a recognised bat, an excellent knock from him so far, perfect for what was needed.

I'm not sure what the pitch will do for the spinners, probably not much on the first couple of days certainly, so India's two-man pace attack will not be able to apply constant pressure like the West Indian bowlers have done.

McGrath-esque figures for Corey Collymore: 15-8-16-1... that's the kind of bowling he was pulling out of the hat against Australia last winter/summer.

[Vrock]

I'm quite amazed at what I am seeing here; Brian Lara has Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels at his disposal and he chooses to bowl Shivnarine Chanderpaul!

So far we've had a couple of leg-breaks and then a googly.

Blimey, this pitch is spinning a decent amount for a part-timer, roll up the best bowlers' paradise you will see in test cricket for a whiile.

[Vrock]

At the close of play, DomainK, you are spot on the money with 200 being a good first innings score as that is what India were all out for! Maybe a bit of luck in the figure ending up so rounded but all the same you may have some short-term bragging rights.

Two bowlers were exceptional for the West Indies: Jerome Taylor (5-50) picked up the wickets which prevented the middle order from making quick fire runs and gaining some advantage. Also Corey Collymore (2-17) bowled 19 overs with 11 maidens. The perfect way to bowl on these types of wickets to allow your more attacking bowlers to make the breakthroughs. Almost like a McGrath/Brett Lee set up going on it appears.

[DomainK]

Amazing Vrock, Indian scored exactly 200. I havent seen much of the match but what you said about Chanderpaul getting some turn is really encouraging. If there is something for spinners here, we have a very interesting day of cricket coming up today.

[Vrock]

Originally Posted by DomainK

If there is something for spinners here, we have a very interesting day of cricket coming up today.

I bet the selectors are probably regretting not having Irfan Pathan in the side as he would have swung the ball like a banana. However if his replacement Harbhajan Singh can get turn and bounce, turn is already guaranteed; to what extent is not sure, then he will be lapping it up and looking to cause as many problems for the West Indian batsmen. Not forgetting a certain Anil Kumble who is bound to be extremely accurate and will cause problems.

I'm interested to see how much impact Sreesanth and Patel have in the early overs, they should be getting the ball to do plenty early on and have a great chance of picking up plenty of wickets.

[Vrock]

West Indies aren't going too well, reaching 91-7 with the only main contributer being Daren Ganga with 40 runs to his name.

Clearly, in the first innings, Rahul Dravid is the difference between the two sides. His knock has given India a probably first innings lead.

Denesh Ramdin scores a couple of boundaries off some poor bowling and then gets one onto the glove for short leg to take an easy catch.

99-8 now.