India Win WI Test Series Despite Consecutive Draws

Two successive draws, two denials of potentials wins later, India can still boast of a series win over the West Indies in the Test series.

Murali Vijay

If the second Test saw India miss the opportunity by three wickets in a match heavily affected by rain, in Dominica, India lost the opportunity once more to register a second Test win in the series. Instead India had to be content with the first Test win that gave them the India West Indies series 1-0.

Although critics would perhaps reflect on the fact that India were not able to breach that mark on a couple of consecutive occasions, they need to be commended to creating situations where win seemed like a realistic possibility. In particular Ishant Sharma’s comeback in the series after a period of lull and Harbhajan Singh’s 400 Test wickets should be commended.

Credit must also go to the West Indies for putting up a fightback that saw them bat into the fifth day at a time when it was expected that they would collapse for a lot less. That they managed to set India a target of 180 runs despite facing a first innings deficit was because of the enterprise of the veteran Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Test debutant, Kirk Edwards, who replaced another veteran Ramnaresh Sarwan. Test centuries from the duo kept India at bay, at a time when it was expected that a facile win may be on the cards for the world’s no.1 Test team following the round of the first innings. That the West Indies stuck out to fight as long as they did is partly responsible why India could not force a result.

That India then did not chase hard was perhaps with the idea that they did not want last minute hiccups, in which case, it makes sense because India were the team in the lead in the series and it was the West Indies who needed to pull out all the stops if they wanted to stop India from walking away with a series victory. As it turned out, India did just that, enough to keep their record intact and enough to keep the critics at bay over a series that saw several Indian cricketers missing from the otherwise regular line up.

In that perhaps the team was tested more than it would have liked, which is why the resourcefulness of V.V.S. Laxman, Rahul Dravid and even the Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, in the third Test were particularly valuable from the context of keeping India’s nose in front. It would be hard to see that India had found suitable answers in replacements but it would be fair to say that in getting as close as they did to victory on two successive occasions – denied the pursuit for the final three wickets during to bad light in the latter half of the fifth day’s play in the second Test and scoring ninety-four runs for the loss of three wickets in thirty-two overs that were possible on the fifth day of the third Test – is credit for the way India kept fighting in a series that was a foregone conclusion had the team been at full strength.