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June 13, 2006 (Click to see the Scorecard)

Bad weather had the final say on Day 4 of the 2nd Test Match at Gros Islet in St.Lucia robbing the entire day’s play without a ball being bowled. India with this have lost more than 100 overs including yesterday’s 11.3 overs during the last session. So bad weather conditions have batted well for the West Indies saving more than three sessions and now it’s just over a minimum of 90 overs that they would have to survive tomorrow. The homeside are still behind by 330 runs and they have already lost their reliable opener Chris Gayle who had helped his side in drawing the 1st Test Match on the final day.

 
From Day 1 of this Test Match, grey clouds have been one of the regular spectators at the Beausejour Stadium. The clouds were always threatening but play could go on enough to drive forward the story line of this Test Match. Indian bowlers who have always struggled in bowling out oppositions on flat decks managed to bowl out West Indies cheaply on Day 3 with even Irfan Pathan rising to the occasion picking up two big wickets. There was a case of India not enforcing the follow on as they could have batted for a session and a half to wait for the pitch to deteriorate further. But there was this intuition in the minds of the Indian team that weather will have a role to play in the outcome of this Test Match at some point of time. And the follow on was enforced just because of that, there was no risk taking as in the past India tragically lost out on winning Test Matches to bad weather on more than one occasion.

India’s miseries started during the last hour of yesterday’s play when play was suspended due to gloomy conditions and strong winds that were blowing away the covers from the groundsmen. This morning the rain decided to pour down continuously and the strong winds that were blowing them away till yesterday were absent. This made the outfield take quiet a beating and the Umpires were not even in a position to do the pitch inspection to decide at what time play would resume on Day 4. They however decided finally that the ground was unfit for Test Match Cricket to happen. So the groundstaff who had toiled hard today will have to keep on working to get the outfield fit by tomorrow. The final day of this Test Match will be starting half an hour early to make out for the lost time. We will have to see if India does have the firepower in their bowling to pick the remaining 9 wickets or not of course if weather permitting that is!
 

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