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June 05, 2006 (Click to see the Scorecard)

The 1st Test Match at the Antigua Recreation Ground is still wide open with both sides having a good opportunity to win it and a draw is also on the cards as it heads towards the final day. West Indies requiring to chase a target of 392 from 95 overs, negotiated 5 overs before close of play on Day 4 without losing a wicket and they now require 379 runs tomorrow. India declared their innings at 521/6 after batting for almost 83 overs today scoring 306 runs. Wasim Jaffer scored a magnificent double hundred and Mahendra Singh Dhoni made a swashbuckling 69 to help India to this massive total.

The morning session was critical for India as they had to carry on the good work done on the third day’s play. Wasim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid had a let off each as Windies failed to latch on a few half chances. Both batsmen were positive in their strokeplay as runs were indeed important and there was no point in just hanging on. Jaffer drove the ball beautifully and got the runs coming at a good pace. Dravid at the other end was rotating the strike and India went into lunch without losing a wicket having scored 93 runs in 28 overs. Dravid got to his fifty by then and Jaffer on the other hand was going stronger and stronger towards a double century! West Indies had delayed in taking the 2nd new ball, but it hardly made any difference as there wasn’t much movement for the bowlers with it.

The post lunch session saw the match delayed by few minutes as the ground was hit by a passing shower. Wasim Jaffer was made to wait and wait to get to his 200 and was stranded on 199 for quiet some time. Meanwhile Rahul Dravid looking to step up the tempo got out slog sweeping Dave Mohammed straight to the throat of mid wicket. Jaffer after that did get to his brilliant double century and his innings made sure that India have comeback into reckoning in this Test Match. Bradshaw had been bowling very well at this stage beating Yuvraj Singh often outside the offstump and he was finally rewarded with his efforts through the big wicket of Wasim Jaffer. Jaffer who was batting on 212 was comprehensively bowled as Bradshaw angled in a short of length delivery and then got it to seam away to hit the stumps of the batsman and Jaffer was looking to drive the ball on the frontfoot to that delivery. India went into Tea having lost Dravid and Jaffer in the post lunch session and they were still trying to reach to safety with the lead being 148 with 6 wickets in hand.

Yuvraj and Kaif took good amount of time to settle down and they were bogged down by some accurate bowling from Ian Bradshaw. India were hardly scoring over one run in each over after the tea break. Bradshaw was made to bowl like a machine and he finally got a break after bowling 25 overs on trot. It was a donkey’s job that Bradshaw had to go through today and his long run up for each and every delivery showed that he was a loyal servant of West Indies cricket, who is prepared to give more than 100% on the field. Yuvraj got out after scoring 39 as his full blooded cover drive off Dave Mohammed was taken by a diving Shivnarine Chanderpaul at short extra covers.

After Yuvraj had got out, Dhoni came in and he showed his intentions of adding up quick runs on the board and it was clear that India were soon going for the declaration. Dhoni got going with his backfoot slaps off the spinners and he also jumped down the track whenever he felt the length was there to be lofted. With time running out, Dhoni decided to put the foot down on the 5th gear and he whacked Dave Mohammed for three consecutive sixes in the 151st over. He went for the fourth consecutive six to equal Kapil Dev’s record, but this time he couldn’t clear the ground and was taken by Daren Ganga at mid wicket just centimeters inside the boundary ropes. Dhoni stood his ground as it wasn’t clear whether Ganga took the catch cleanly inside the ropes. Even the 3rd Umpire couldn’t decide that as the evidence wasn’t there to prove either case of that being a six or a clean catch. The Umpires then rightly decided to give the benefit of the doubt to the batsman, but Lara who was upset at this argued his case with the Umpires and the whole decision was stretched for more than 15 minutes! Rahul Dravid then thought it was wise to put an end to this bizarre incident by calling off Dhoni and Kaif inside the dressing room. That meant that the Indians had declared their innings and it was later confirmed off field that Dhoni had agreed to Ganga’s word of the catch being clean. Those 15 minutes definitely saw players on both sides getting fired up and it might have hopefully cleared by now.

Well the final day’s play tomorrow would be more than an interesting one. And it is so because the target from India needs well over 4 runs per over for the entire day and that doesn’t mean that West Indies cannot chase it. That’s because of the three inexperienced fast bowlers for India having to do the work along with Anil Kumble. It is also a fact that the Antigua Recreation Ground is the home for the most batting records in Test Match Cricket. So this match is certainly heading towards any direction, watch out!

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