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June 14, 2006 (Click to see the Scorecard)

Brian Lara’s marathon innings of 120 helped West Indies draw the 2nd Test Match at St.Lucia. India was kept interested in the game right from the start and in the end they fell short by 3 wickets. West Indies would thank heavens for washing out the fourth day’s play without a single delivery bowled and today they would thank Brian Lara for keeping the Indians at bay most of the day with his defence. India tried hard through Kumble and Munaf to bowl out West Indies but the support from the back up bowlers Irfan Pathan and VRV Singh wasn’t there. Virender Sehwag did more than what was expected off him and he did get the crucial wicket of Lara in the final session to bring India’s hopes of winning the match back. Sehwag who had taken four wickets in the match along with his swashbuckling 180 was the obvious choice for the Man of the Match.

 
Tale of the Morning Session

Play started half an hour early to cover up for the lost time yesterday. There was a possibility of 98 overs to be bowled today and the mandatory overs were scheduled to start after 83 overs. West Indies started off poorly losing Daren Ganga and then Ramnaresh Sarwan early and it looked that India was good enough to win this match from here. Ganga was the first man to go misreading a googly from Kumble and the right hander let that go only to see his offstump disturbed. Then Munaf Patel complemented with the wicket of Sarwan as he drew the batsman forward and then got the ball to move away just enough to force the outside edge. West Indies now had just the 7 wickets in hand and it required its two most experienced batsmen Brian Lara and Chanderpaul to bat for a long period of time. The two left handers did exactly what was required from them and they saw West Indies through for Lunch at 138 for 3. Lara was batting on 66 and Chanderpaul was 35 and by now India were starting to feel a bit tense that this partnership was growing to dangerous levels.

Tale of the Afternoon Session

Lara and Chanderpaul kept their concentration levels intact and India were kept waiting for a long time until a rank bad ball got the wicket of Chanderpaul. It was a full toss from Kumble that Chanderpaul was looking to smash it over mid wicket but ended up miscuing it and an overhead catch was taken by Pathan at mid on. Chanderpaul was gone after scoring his 9th test match fifty against India and after he was out, India still had one and a half session to take the remaining six wickets. At this stage Bravo had joined Lara and never did Bravo look uncomfortable against the Indian bowling including Anil Kumble. The 2nd new ball was taken without wasting much time in the 81st over and surprisingly Sehwag made first use of it. He was taken off the attack though after bowling one over with it and the pair of Munaf and Pathan was entrusted with it. It was a gentle loosener from Munaf that allowed Lara to smack through covers to get to his 32nd hundred, which was just his 2nd against India. The two Trinidadians Lara and Bravo took West Indies to the Tea Break at 221 for 4 to make it really hard for India to win the game from here.
 

Tale of the Last Session

It was an uphill task for the Indians to pick six wickets in the final session and it became really hard when Lara and Bravo batted for more than 30 minutes after the tea break. But all of a sudden there was a twist in the tale as Asad Rauf made a mistake in giving Lara out lbw to Sehwag. Lara who was looking to heave Sehwag was rapped up on the pads but the impact was clearly outside the offstump and the ball was turning away to miss the stumps as well. Lara was gone for 120, but the most important part was that he faced 307 deliveries to frustrate the Indians. After a while, Kumble struck with the wicket of Bravo as the right hander was late in his flick shot on the backfoot to a pushed up delivery from Kumble and he got a thin inside edge onto his thigh to be taken at short leg. The wicket of Bravo was too late but there was still a decent chance for India to take the remaining 4 wickets. But Bradshaw who joined Ramdin showed good temperament and defence as he kept on surviving Kumble and Sehwag despite the pressure of having the fielders surrounding him. It was Munaf who was brought in almost near the close of the match that got the wicket of Bradshaw as the fast bowler got the ball to reverse swing into the left hander to strike him infront of the stumps. It was just under 10 minutes to survive for West Indies and Ramdin and Taylor finished the job with ease. Ramdin had done well to bat for 62 deliveries and Bradshaw was equally impressive lasting 40 balls. Anil Kumble was the best bowler for India taking 3 wickets in the 42 overs he had bowled. Munaf had done really well taking 2 wickets to follow up with his 3 in the first innings.

India missed out on winning for the 2nd consecutive time and this time they were done in by the rain that batted for more than three sessions for the homseide. Both teams get a much deserved break from the intense cricket and they get back to action on the 22nd at St.Kitts for the 3rd Test Match.

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