MUMBAI: India are on course for a series whitewash against West Indies and need 95 more runs in the final session to wrap up victory on the last day of the third and final test on Saturday.
Despite losing four wickets in the afternoon, India, chasing 243 for the win, reached 148 for four at tea. Vangipurappu Laxman (19) and Virat Kohli (20) were at the crease at the break.
Virender Sehwag stroked a chancy 60 off 65 balls and added 82 runs for the second wicket with Rahul Dravid (33) to launch India's charge towards the target.
Sehwag, who was dropped three times during his knock, hit eight boundaries before he was finally caught by West Indies captain Darren Sammy off leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo while trying a cheeky reverse paddle sweep.
Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar (three) fell soon after in similar fashion, trying to drive on the up against part-time off-spinner Marlon Samuels and was caught at short mid-wicket.
West Indies had a sniff of victory at that stage with India at 113 for four, but Laxman and Kohli steadied the ship with a 35-run stand for the unbroken fifth wicket.
Earlier, spinners Pragyan Ojha and Ravichandran Ashwin forced a batting collapse as West Indies were bundled out for 134 in their second innings.
Resuming on their overnight score of 81 for two, the tourists succumbed meekly in just 95 minutes in the morning, losing their last eight wickets in 23.2 overs as Ojha (6-47) and Ashwin (4-34) ran riot.
Left-arm spinner Ojha added four more wickets to his overnight tally of two and bowled in an uninterrupted spell on the final day, extracting good turn and bounce from the Wankhede Stadium pitch.
Ashwin, who notched his maiden test century on Friday, took four wickets to add to his five-wicket haul in the first innings of the test match.
West Indies will only have themselves to blame if they lose the match after taking a first innings lead of 108 runs.
The visiting batsmen, put under pressure by the generous turn on offer, played some atrocious shots and helped India's spinners give life to a match that had looked like ending in a draw.
Kraigg Brathwaite and first-innings centurion Darren Bravo added 61 for the third wicket, the only notable partnership in the innings, but Braithwaite's dismissal in the fifth over of the morning opened the floodgates.
West Indies lost their last eight wickets for 43 runs as Bravo, Samuels, Carlton Baugh, Ravi Rampaul and Sammy all got out trying to play attacking shots against the Indian spinners.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.