Sun (India) Shine

In a day of uncharacteristic sunshine, with no interruptions, India batted the world champions after a wobbly start and eventually took advantage of a West Indian attack thrown completely out of balance by the medically induced absence of Ravi Rampaul. Unable to share the new ball with Fidel Edwards last night, Rampaul has been laid low by a virus and is likely to take no further part in the game. Meanwhile, Kemar Roach looks on from the stands.

The are good signs starting to come from these West Indians and another example was the bowling of Edwards and Captain Darren Sammy. Sammy elevated himself to the new ball in place of Rampaul and toiled throughout the day, constantly keeping the Indians honest at less than two an over when they wanted to accelerate. As it was, India was 2-18 after Vijay edged again with a tentative bat in the manner he has all series and Baugh gleefully accepted the wicket on Edwards behalf and then Sammy pushed a ball through a large gap between Dravid's front pad and bat.

From there, with no third seamer, Sammy was always going to have to make it up. Bishoo bowled a lot of overs but the Indian middle order looked to have no trouble with the young leg spinner after he had troubled them on earlier, friendly wickets. It was the experience of Laxman and Dhoni who anchored the rest of the day: Laxman (56) in productive partnerships with Munkind (62) and Kohli (30) put India beyond trouble and within reach of a first innings lead and then Dhoni (65x) added 103 with Raina (50) to bat India to a substantial lead. It was a day of what might now be considered graft but a neat 300 were added in losing six wickets at more than three an over.

Sammy's brave makeshift bowlers included Chanderpaul, who captured his first Test wicket in ten years when Carlton Baugh pulled of the smartest of stumpings to remove VVS Laxman. To that point, none of the bowlers had worried Laxman and he was in the process of letting Chanderpaul's long hops and rubbish go when he got out. Leaving yet another harmless ball pass outside off stump, he raised his back foot slightly, offered the slightest of slight opportunities to Baugh, who had the bails off instantly. Its nice to still see these sort of skills are still on view. Asked once by a colleague once if I thought I could have bowled at Test level, I replied a conditional yes on the basis of having Bert Oldfield behind the batsman.

Despite the bravery of the West Indian bowlers, main stream and makeshift and the close attention of their fielders, India still batted their way to strong position by stumps, an effort which has closed the match options considerably in their favour. As for the forecast rain ...