Fourth Test, India versus West Indies, Antigua

Courageous Kumble steels his jaw, pushes Windies on the defensive

Day Three

India ended the third day of the fourth Test with their heads held high when Anil Kumble, suffering from a fractured jaw, came on to bowl with his head strapped heavily in bandages and claimed the prized wicket of Brian Lara to leave the West Indies precariously placed at 187/3. Trailing by 326 runs and with two days left in the Antigua Test, the West Indies will have to fight hard to avoid going down 1-2 in the five-Test series.

The morning session

India kept the West Indies on the field for the third successive morning with overnight batsman Ajay Ratra seven short of his maiden Test hundred. The decision to continue batting on the third day was prompted by the injury to leg-spinner Kumble who suffered a stress fracture after taking a blow on his left jaw while batting.

Centurion V V S Laxman, looking to negotiate a short ball from Mervyn Dillon behind leg, trampled his off-stump and was dismissed hit-wicket after an invaluable innings of 130.

After 15 edgy deliveries which included a strong LBW appeal off Dillon and an excruciating blow on his hand from a kicking Cameron Cuffy delivery which required on-field treatment, Ratra pulled Dillon to the fine-leg fence and punched the air to celebrate his maiden Test hundred. In the process he became the first specialist wicket-keeper from India to score a Test hundred on foreign soil. And though arguments about the placid nature of the track will try to take away from the quality of Ratra's century, the fact that Sachin Tendulkar got a duck at the same ground will lay all such criticism to rest.

Cuffy snapped up Zaheer Khan caught at the wicket; the score reading 485/8.

With Kumble unlikely to play any further part in the Test, skipper Sourav Ganguly decided to bat on. The game plan was debatable. On a ground with 15 five-wicket hauls, only once has a spinner ever picked up five wickets in an innings -- hardly comforting for a spinner making his comeback.

Cuffy picked up his second wicket of the morning when Javagal Srinath drove uppishly for Lara to take a simple catch at cover and ended a 23-run stand for the ninth wicket (508/9). India finally declared 30 minutes before lunch.

The left-handed opening pair of Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds negotiated seven overs quite comfortably and went in to lunch at 17/0.

The post-lunch session

On the most placid track of the series, left-handers Hinds and Gayle put together the best opening partnership for their team. Despite changing the ball as early as the 11th over, the Indian bowlers failed to penetrate the West Indian defence. Hinds, returning from a brilliant 175 against the Indians in the game at St Lucia for Busta XI, showed his affinity for the Indian attack as he hit the bowlers to all parts of the ground.

Srinath was unlucky not to find the edge of Gayle's bat off successive deliveries. The batsman rubbed salt into Srinath's wounds when he thumped the Karnataka bowler through the covers for a four in the next over.

On a wicket refusing to help the bowlers, the Indian fielding wavered when Gayle flicked Zaheer to square-leg only for Shiv Sunder Das to grass the simplest of catches.

But Zaheer broke the 65-run opening partnership in his next over when he bowled a delivery that pitched just outside off and came back to kissing Gayle's gloves on its way to the wicket-keeper.

Ramnaresh Sarwan walked in to join Hinds who raced towards his half-century with some crisp drives off the Indian seamers. Ganguly then tossed the ball to Tendulkar and quickly realised the impact of losing Kumble.

Tendulkar bowling his version of spin turned the ball either ways confounding the batsmen. He almost had a wicket when he had Hinds edging one that fell just short of slip fielder Rahul Dravid.

West Indies went into tea with the score 88/1, having scored 71 runs in the 26-over session.

The post-tea session

The Indians trudged back onto the field with a long session of play looming ahead thanks to their slow bowling rate in the previous session.

Hinds stroked his way to a fluent half-century smashing a four through the covers and the script for the rest of the afternoon was written until Tendulkar bowled again.

Tendulkar, who had troubled Hinds before tea, tossed one up and pitched it around Hinds' leg stump. Hinds failed to take the ball on the full and was bowled round his legs for 65.

Lara walked out into the middle looking for his big score of the series with the team total reading 121/2.

With juice in the wicket for the tweakers, Tendulkar waged a lone battle until Kumble freshened the sultry air with his courageous entry on the ground.

Despite having been declared hors d'combat with a cracked jaw, Kumble, inspired by the turn afforded by the wicket, got team physio Andrew Leipus to swathe his face with bandages and turned up to do duty for India.

With a strapped face that offered a palette of expressions, Kumble bowled his first over writhing in pain every time his front foot landed on the bowling crease. His mates could clearly feel his agony.

Umpire David Shepherd placed an avuncular arm around Kumble at the end of his first over. Leipus kept circling the boundary fence checking on Kumble and strapping him up after every over as Harbhajan Singh watched with concern.

Surprisingly, for reasons only he can explain, Ganguly took Tendulkar off the other end and continued with pace bowling at one end and Kumble at the other instead of bowling the two spinners in tandem on a wicket showing signs of taking turn.

Lara seemed flummoxed as much by Kumble's appearance as by his tweakers that kept chipping away at the master batsman's confidence.

The saga of raw courage soon turned into a fairytale when Kumble in his fourth over pitched one on middle and off and trapped Lara plumb in front. Lara's dismissal seemed to inspire Kumble who ignored his face swelling up.

Hooper and Sarwan then survived some searching overs from the leg-spinner as the runs dried up. Hooper was lucky to survive a confident LBW appeal off Kumble, who then had the West Indies skipper caught by Das at forward short-leg off a no-ball.

Kumble had a chance to dismiss Hooper off the very next ball when he tried to cut a delivery that jumped and spat at the batsman. But Dravid at first slip failed to grab the sharp chance. Thereafter, the fourth-wicket partnership between the Windies skipper and Sarwan crossed the 50-run mark.

Sarwan got to yet another half-century as the West Indies ended the day at 187/3, having scored 99 runs in the extended third session that saw 39 overs being bowled. Kumble finished with figures of 14-5-29-1.

"This one takes the cake," remarked Leipus who has seen players take the field with injuries before, but never as serious as the one sustained by Kumble. But in his blueprint for winning, the Karnataka leggie counts on fighting harder when the chips are down.

Leipus feels Kumble needs to return home for surgery at the earliest. Maybe the fourth day will see him cause a few more breakthroughs before flying back. Maybe not. But Sunday certainly saw him give all those fans watching the game a lot of goose bumps.

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