Saturday, August 13, 2016

INDIA VS WEST INDIES, 3RD TEST - DAY 4

Bhuvneshwar swings through West Indies to give India shot at win

India 353 and 157 for 3 (Rahane 51*) lead West Indies 225 (Brathwaite 64, Bhuvneshwar 5-33) by 285 runs

Despite a rained-out day and the slow rate of scoring in the first two innings, India entertained thoughts of winning the St Lucia Test thanks to a masterful spell of swing bowling from Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Playing his first Test in a year and a half, Bhuvneshwar swung through the West Indies side with a spell of 11.4-6-16-5 as West Indies went from 202 for 3 to 225 all out.

With 98 overs to go in the match and a lead of 285 in the bag, India could think of declaring soon on the fifth morning. They made a good start to the endeavour, scoring 157 for 3 in the 39 overs they got on day four, a rate well higher than the 2.48 an over in the first two innings.

Bhuvneshwar, and for that matter Ravindra Jadeja, is not Virat Kohli's first choice. He prefers Umesh Yadav's pace and Amit Mishra's legspin. Post lunch on day four, with West Indies going fairly well in their quest to ensure they don't lose this Test, it was Bhuvneshwar and Jadeja who turned the match around with the second new ball.

There's a reason why Bhuvneshwar was Kohli's last resort. He bowled the entire match-changing spell without a fine leg. No fine leg, no long leg, no backward square leg. No man behind square on the leg side. Kohli prefers his wickets with batsmen fending at express quicks. It was a sign that the young captain is not stubborn in that he first selected Bhuvneshwar and then gave him the field that works with his bowling. Bhuvneshwar was about to show him the other way of taking wickets.

Kohli had taken the new ball as soon as it became available just before lunch despite the struggles of
Jermaine Blackwood and Marlon Samuels against the turning old ball. It was a session in which an India bowler took a wicket for the first time in 528 legal deliveries. If the last wicket off a bowler shouldn't have been given out - Shane Dowrich on the last day in Jamaica - the legality of this 528th delivery was in doubt. It was an Ishant Sharma bouncer that Darren Bravo top-edged after taking his eyes off, but Ishant didn't quite seem to have a part of his foot behind the crease. It wasn't an obvious no-ball, though, and after multiple replays the third umpire ruled in favour of the bowler, perhaps acting on the new ICC directive to grant the benefit of doubt to the bowler.

 
R Ashwin went on to get the other overnight batsman, Kraigg Brathwaite, and the two spinners had Samuels and Blackwood uncomfortable. Kohli took the new ball and handed it over to Bhuvneshwar. The batsmen had added 59 before lunch, they can both punish errors in line, but through the spell Bhuvneshwar conceded only two shots to fine leg. Blackwood was the first one to go, having faced 15 straight dots from Bhuvneshwar, who bowled a length fuller than he did with the first new ball. The 16th was an outswinger that Blackwood, who loves bat on ball, couldn't resist. Kohli took one of the more predictable edges at second slip.

It took less persistence to set Samuels, 48, up. With Blackwood facing the Bhuvneshwar swing almost exclusively, it was only during the 10th over with the new ball that Samuels was presented to Bhuvneshwar. This time Bhuvneshwar was in no mood for slow cooking. Four outswingers later, he went wide on the crease, slipped in an inswinger, and Samuels, surprised by it all, played on.

Kohli brought Jadeja on at the other end, and he kept creating trouble with the ones that went straight on. The one that turned, though, got the man who had denied India in Jamaica, Roston Chase. Bhuvneshwar's masterclass continued at the other end. Jason Holder was caught on the back foot by one that angled in, and Alzarri Joseph followed a straight ball outside off.

With a remarkable five-for in sight, Bhuvneshwar's persistence was thoroughly tested by his fielders. There were signs he was tiring - the second ball of the 10th over was short and pulled for four, reducing the spell analysis to 9.2-6-11-4 - but he still produced the edge from Shane Dowrich. KL Rahul dropped his second chance of the match at third slip, but it took the third umpire to ascertain it that he had grassed it. In his next over, Bhuvneshwar was offered what should have been his through an ill-advised pull from Dowrich. Rohit Sharma, though, dropped a relatively easy catch at midwicket; he suggested he had lost the ball in the sun. Later in that over Bhuvneshwar was denied a pretty straightforward lbw by the umpire; Miguel Cummins was the beneficiary this time.

A change in bowling at the other end worked. R Ashwin ended this frustrating 6.5-over partnership, and Bhuvneshwar bowled another over to complete his third Test five-for. This was one of his least impressive wickets; in this over he had even conceded a boundary to fine leg. Two balls later Dowrich saw one short and wide, edged the cut, and this time Shikhar Dhawan nearly dropped it at first slip. Dhawan took the rebound, drawing hardly a reaction from Bhuvneshwar.

India had wasted about 40 minutes through some ordinary fielding, but the first culprit, Rahul, went about making up for that time in earnest. His 28 off 24 gave India a run rate of higher than six, but with the subsequent fall of Kohli and Dhawan meant Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma had to be cautious at the start of their partnership. They scored only 16 in the first nine overs of their stand as West Indies made no bones about trying to slow India down through containment and not wickets. Roston Chase and Kraigg Brathwaite bowled 19 overs between them after the pace bowlers had travelled.

Rahane and Rohit made up for the slow start, ending the day with 51 off 93 and 41 off 57, but the time wasted through dropped catches and the mid-innings slowdown could just end up costing India a five-six over burst with the second new ball on day five.

Friday, August 12, 2016

INDIA VS WEST INDIES, Raina, Yuvraj out of T20Is in USA

Raina, Yuvraj out of T20Is in USA


MS Dhoni, India's limited-overs captain, will lead the 14-member squad for the two T20Is against West Indies in Florida on August 27 and 28. Dhoni and Jasprit Bumrah are the only members in the squad who are not who are not in the West Indies for the ongoing Test series.
The squad for the USA matches includes nine members of India's 2016 World T20 team. Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Hardik Pandya, Pawan Negi, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra and Manish Pandey have missed out.

While Pandya and Pandey are with the India A team in Australia, Raina, Yuvraj and Harbhajan will feature in the upcoming Duleep Trophy that will be played with the pink ball, and under lights starting from August 23 in Greater Noida.

Yuvraj and Raina have been named captains of the India Red and India Green teams in the Duleep Trophy respectively. Negi does not feature in the squads for the Duleep Trophy either, while Nehra is recovering from a knee surgery following the conclusion of the IPL in May.

KL Rahul, who made his T20I debut in Zimbabwe in June and has been in good form in the ongoing Test series against West Indies, has been retained, while Amit Mishra and Stuart Binny have been recalled to the squad. Binny last played a T20I in Zimbabwe in 2015, while Mishra has not featured in the format since April 2014.

Meanwhile, M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shardul Thakur, Ishant Sharma and Wriddhiman Saha will return after the fourth and final West Indies Test in Port of Spain, which is scheduled to end on August 22. Vijay, Pujara and Thakur are likely to be available for the second round of the Duleep Trophy.




Changes from World T20 squad

In: KL Rahul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Amit Mishra, Stuart Binny

Out Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Hardik Pandya, Pawan Negi, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Manish Pandey

Full squad for WI T20s: MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Amit Mishra, Stuart Binny

INDIA VS WEST INDIES, 3RD TEST - DAY 3

Washout a big step towards draw at St Lucia

West Indies 107 for 1 (Brathwaite 53*) trail India 353 (Ashwin 118, Saha 104, Rahul 50, Cummins 3-54, Joseph 3-69) by 246 runs

 The St Lucia Test took a big step towards a draw with steady rain not allowing any play on the third day. The match had already gone at a slow pace on the first two days with 11 wickets falling for only 460 runs. There hadn't been any weather interruption on the first two days; the slowness was down to disciplined West Indies bowling and a slow outfield. 

West Indies were 107 for 1, trailing India's 353 by 246 runs. With two days to go and an outfield slowed down further, chances of a result looked remote. India led the series 1-0 after the win in Antigua and draw in Jamaica.

The rain on the third day was so steady play was called off before tea, at 1.45pm. Forecast for day four was for early showers but a clear afternoon.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

INDIA VS WEST INDIES, 3RD TEST - DAY 2

West Indies reply solidly to India's 353

West Indies 107 for 1 (Brathwaite 53*) trail India 353 (Ashwin 118, Saha 104, Rahul 50, Cummins 3-54, Joseph 3-69) by 246 runs



#India lost their first five wickets for 126 and their last five for 14, but between the two collapses R Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha added 213 runs to save them the blushes. Ashwin scored his fourth century, all against West Indies and two in this series, and Saha attacked his way to a maiden Test century, which countered West Indies' plan to keep India from scoring freely on a slow outfield.

#The day, though, belonged to West Indies, whose new opening combination of Leon Johnson and Kraigg Brathwaite followed the bowling charge with a stand greater than all their earlier opening partnerships in this series put together. Brathwaite ended the day unbeaten on 53, with West Indies still 246 behind, which could take some time coming on the slow outfield. After 234 runs on the first day, the second day produced 226 for six wickets.

#India's theoretical dislike of slow scoring, and some of the selections in Virat Kohli's Test team might leave you worried for the future of old-fashioned Test batsmen, but Saha and Ashwin continued to bat for the tribe after the rescue job on day one. While Ashwin, resuming on 75, gave India the solidity, it was Saha who played with intent against a limited West Indies attack happy to play the defensive game. Saha added 58 off 105 balls to his overnight 46 even as West Indies kept it tight at the other end.

#The first hour of the day replicated what happened for long periods on the opening day. West Indies stacked up one side of the field, and their strike bowlers spent their energy bowling on that side of the wicket, hoping for impatient shots from the batsmen. None of that arrived.

#The intent came in the second hour with Saha taking risks and Ashwin taking only what came his way, understandable given he was approaching a hundred. Saha's effort on the second morning was a repeat of his approach on the first day: against disciplined bowling, Saha had scored 1 off the first 34 balls he faced, 8 off the first 65, and then opened up to end the opening day on 46 off 122; when he came back on Wednesday he scored just 6 off the first 31 balls he faced, but then drove Alzarri Joseph through cover for the first boundary of the day, in the 10th over of the morning.

#After drinks the clear plan seemed for Saha to have a go and disrupt West Indies from their plan of taking time out of the game. Sixty-one came in the second hour as opposed to 21 in the first. Saha was at the forefront, hitting all of the first five boundaries of the day. The third of those, a slog off Roston Chase, the offspinner, took him to his personal best, 64. The fourth took the partnership to 150. In the 21st over of the morning, Ashwin cut away from his body and got his first boundary of the day, moving to 99.

#Even as Ashwin stayed on 99, Saha raced away from 77 to 93 by the time the players went off for their second meal of the day. In the last over before lunch, though, Shannon Gabriel caught Saha on the bare forearm with a short ball. Saha came back with a swollen elbow, but both the batsmen duly reached their centuries with Saha becoming only the fourth India wicketkeeper to score an away century. In the seventh over after lunch, Saha went to drive a really full delivery from Alzarri Joseph, edging it through to Shane Dowrich.

#Now the West Indies pace attack charged at the tail with renewed vigour. Having waited 281 balls for his first Test wicket, Miguel Cummins took three in 10 balls: Ravindra Jadeja following an angling delivery, and Ashwin and Ishant Sharma fending at awkward short balls. In between the Cummins carnage, Gabriel came back to get a much-deserved second wicket, Bhuvneshwar Kumar caught at short leg.

#That the quick bowlers were making the batsmen fend pointed to some life in the pitch, but only if you banged the ball in. The India bowlers - Bhuvneshwar and Mohammed Shami with the new ball - looked to nick the batsmen out. Shami took over Cummins' poor luck; in the half hour before tea he drew an edge from Brathwaite that fell short, and one from Johnson was dropped by KL Rahul at third slip. By the time Rahul made amends with a direct hit from midwicket to run Johnson out, West Indies had put together their first fifty opening in 26 innings.

#For the first time in the series Darren Bravo walked out after a good start, and batted with more assurance than earlier. Brathwaite brought out the discipline he is known for, waiting for loose balls, not minding having to run runs because of the slow outfield, breaking the monotony with a chip shot here or there, spending more than three hours at the wicket for his half-century. The closest India came to a wicket was indifferent running from Bravo and Brathwaite.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

INDIA VS WEST INDIES, 3RD TEST - DAY 1

Ashwin, Saha rescue India on testing day


#On a day when India made questionable selections, one of the management's moves in this series, the promotion of R Ashwin to No. 6, rescued them from 126 for 5. In testing conditions India left out Cheteshwar Pujara and M Vijay in favour of Rohit Sharma, whose inclusion led to a rejigged batting order.

#While this apparent push for quick runs resulted in a batting failure, West Indies were not behind in making unusual moves. There was more purpose to their attack, after putting India in, than in the first two Tests. But when they should have looked to finish things off, they opted for the patience route, which cut down the runs thanks to a slow outfield. The wickets, though, came only through the batsmen's impatience. KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane threw away starts with impatient shots, but Ashwin - dropped on 26 and caught off a no-ball on 35 - and Wriddhiman Saha soldiered on to keep India from imploding.

#Ashwin and Saha, 46 off 122, added an unbeaten 108 for the sixth wicket. Another lower-order contribution was a continuation of a trend for India: on tough pitches in the home season, they recovered from 139 for 6 in Delhi, 125 for 6 in Nagpur, and 102 for 5 in Mohali.

#The big comeback, though, was that of West Indies in the series. For the first eight days of the series they were pretty much outplayed. Moral victories and psychology can be terms abused in cricket, but the Jamaica draw might have caused damage in Indian heads that might have played a part in leaving them in tatters at tea in St Lucia. West Indies won the toss and utilised the conditions efficiently without being sensational, but India helped them out with their selections.

#Having survived the Jamaica Test, West Indies mounted a fresh challenge against this unsteady Indian batting line-up - a different top three in each Test - by taking wickets when the pitch was fresh and then choking India out with disciplined bowling. Rahul and Rahane, the only specialist batsmen to reach double figures, helped India recover from 19 for 2 but fell in soft manner just before the two session breaks, Rahane to a full toss to end his slowest Test innings of 10 or more.

#The second of the wickets was the highlight. Debutant Alzarri Joseph, who impressed with his pace and his bowling mechanics in only his ninth first-class match, nicked out Virat Kohli with the new ball, a promotion in the order because of the selection of Rohit. West Indies' resistance and the resultant draw in Jamaica led to three changes for India, two of them expected, Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in for Amit Mishra and Umesh Yadav.

#The batting selections were instructive. At the toss, Kohli, who would have batted if he had won the toss anyway, emphasised that Rohit can change a match in a session. Both Vijay, who was fit after missing the Jamaica Test, and Pujara are reputed to be slower scorers. Turns out India might have misread the pitch or underestimated the attack: the situation asked for the patience of Vijay and
Pujara. Moreover, Kohli and Rahane had to give up their familiar batting positions.

#West Indies were more aggressive to begin with. They added Joseph to the attack, and peppered India with short deliveries. The moisture in the pitch gave them spongy bounce when they pitched short, and some seam movement when they pitched it up. Shikhar Dhawan wasted little time in falling to a short ball, tickling Shannon Gabriel down the leg side.

#Kohli walked in at No. 3, but the fresh pitch with the new seaming ball was not suited for his style of play: soon he shaped up to cut a Joseph delivery that was neither short nor wide, neither full nor close enough to him. Kohli was eventually done in by the extra bounce, but playing such deliveries you get away on pitches like the one in Antigua or against the old ball. A bit of a repeat of his England dismissals brought in India's most reliable batsman, Rahane.

#It was Rahul who weathered most of the initial storm. After an ordinary start - missing five of the first 11 balls he played at - he punished every error in length. Every time West Indies overpitched, Rahul drove hard, even in the air. Short and wide deliveries were cut away. It didn't matter that the good ones in between kept beating him. On a day that the rest of the team scored 169 runs, Rahul took 50 off only 65 balls. Having done the hard work, Rahul fell 18 minutes before lunch, trying to whip a shortish delivery from Roston Chase straight to the man who had just moved to short fine leg.
West Indies came back attacking in the second session. Soon Rohit fell in typical manner, pushing defensively at a Joseph outswinger a set of stumps outside off. After that wicket, though, perhaps because the pitch had settled down, West Indies began to test India's patience. It worked: minutes before tea, Rahane, seeing release in a Chase full toss, swept down the wrong line and was bowled
for 35 off 133. That didn't result in taking off the part-time spin of Kraigg Brathwaite.

#The middle session produced just 43 runs for two wickets, and instead of going for the wickets of the lesser batsmen West Indies began with Jason Holder and Chase in the final session. On another day, persisting with these tactics might have worked but West Indies made two crucial mistakes. When Ashwin left the crease in impatience, inside-edging Chase, Leon Johnson missed him at short leg. When West Indies looked to break the monotony, Gabriel bowled a short ball from round the wicket for a catch at point, it turned out he had cut the return crease with his back foot.

#Other than that, Ashwin and Saha showed remarkable patience. Because of the slow outfield West Indies could have a stacked field. Chase often bowled with a six-three leg-side field, leaving point open and bowling into the pads. Any scoring was now fraught with risk, and if he dropped the ball short the slow outfield cost him just the one run. India were in no state to take risks so the two batsmen put their head down, and kept picking whatever singles or twos were on offer.

#Between the fall of Rahul and the claiming of the second new ball, only 111 runs came in 61.3 overs. Against the new ball, having done the hard work, the two batsmen chanced their arms. An edge fell short here, another flew over slips there; a crisp drive was misfielded now, a bowler bowled a loose ball there, and India had 46 in the last nine overs to wrest the initiative a bit. India dropped solid batsmen for quick runs when they should have been weathering the new ball out, then they were forced to bat slowly when they should have been capitalising on the older ball and tired fielders, and finally the lesson of building long Test innings was delivered by the lower order whose first role in the team is not batting.

Saturday, August 6, 2016

The importance of Kumble the coach for India's bowlers

The new coach is already making a difference to Ashwin's overseas record, and his partnership with Kohli could be fruitful too


Is it a coincidence that R Ashwin reached new heights as a spinner in away Tests after Virat Kohli and coach Anil Kumble came together? I believe not, for the two are among the most positive thinkers on the game that Indian cricket knows, and I am sure they have given Ashwin and the other
 Indian bowlers a dose of the sort of confidence they have rarely known before.

While his promotion in the batting order in the first Test must have done Ashwin's self-belief a world of good, we learn from the man himself that he successfully overcome his frustration at his lack of wickets in the first innings in Antigua thanks to Kumble's counselling.

Kumble obviously knows from his own experience that bowlers sometimes go unrewarded while doing everything right, but not all bowlers recognise this fact. In their anxiety to get wickets, they may end up trying too hard and eventually lose the plot altogether, instead of calmly continuing to do what they have been doing and waiting patiently for their luck to turn.

I never played international cricket and do not know firsthand what it is to feel the pressures of bowling at that level, but in my own cricket career I knew how to deal with wicketlessness. It never bothered me so long as I knew I was bowling well.

(Actually, that last statement was not entirely true. There came a time when I did become anxious for wickets, and that was the beginning of the end of my bowling career.)

As a specialist bowler Kumble brings a rare advantage to his job. He understands bowling and bowlers in a way batsmen-coaches can seldom do. In his all-too-short stint as captain of India, he handled bowlers perhaps better than most of his predecessors did.

Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, in his second reign as captain, and Ajit Wadekar, with their different approaches, used their bowling resources well. Pataudi relied heavily on spinners and so did Wadekar, who was a little more defensive in his approach in a typically Mumbai style.

Between Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid (or even Dravid and MS Dhoni), Dravid was usually more ready to go for the kill, especially in the matter of timing declarations. Both he and Ganguly had Kumble and Harbhajan Singh at their command, though India sometimes went in with only one of them in the XI.

As captain, Kumble himself insisted on two spinners in the XI, and used Harbhajan very effectively. He was also not averse to giving Virender Sehwag relatively long spells as an offspinner, or trying to include Ganguly the medium-pacer in his scheme of things.

As coach, Kumble has even greater freedom to try out his bowling theories than he had in his captaincy days (as he doesn't have to deal with thinking of when to bring himself on or take himself off), though he still needs to sell his ideas to Kohli.

In fact, the Kohli-Kumble partnership could be the ideal coach-captain combination, with Kohli bringing a complementary batsman-captain's perspective into their discussions. It helps that both of them are equally aggressive in intent and tend to back the bowlers. Both seem to allow the bowlers to express themselves without inhibition.




Bowling allrounder Kapil Dev handled his bowlers remarkably well in the 1983 World Cup and also in Test cricket, leading India to a 2-0 triumph in England, where he marshalled his resources - Chetan Sharma, Roger Binny, Madan Lal, Kapil himself and spinner Maninder Singh - admirably.

At a recent cricket-related event, Kapil spoke of the problems he had communicating with one of his favourite bowlers, Roger Binny. "He didn't know Hindi and I didn't know English.'' But Kapil also said that discussions between captain and bowler could assume greater importance than they deserve. "There was little conversation possible between me and Roger, so I left him alone, and he bowled very well. It's sometimes good to leave bowlers alone."

There can be such a thing as too much communication from the captain to the bowlers, as we saw during Sachin Tendulkar's captaincy, or too little, as was sometimes evident when Dhoni led the side. It's early days still, but the Kumble-Kohli partnership does augur well for India's bowlers in the long run, though the pair will be tested by stronger teams than West Indies.














INDIA VS WEST INDIES 2ND TEST 2016 DRAW

India vs West Indies: Losing More Than 100 Overs Was Crucial, Says Anil Kumble 


India head coach Anil Kumble hailed Roston Chase for his magnificent 137-run knock but rued that losing more than 100 overs in the Jamaica Test was one of the most important factors that helped the West Indies pull off a draw.

Led by Mohammed Shami, Indian bowlers ran through the Windies' top-order on the fourth morning before rain wiped out play in the final two sessions of the day, after which their lower-middle order resisted through the whole of Day five

"Obviously, we wanted to win this Test match. Yesterday, we were in a very good position and credit to the West Indies batsmen, the way they batted," said Kumble after the match ended in a draw.
"Yesterday, time was very crucial for us because we were in great momentum and the conditions were such that it could have been different if we had probably bowled more. There was loss of play, more than 100 overs were lost in this Test match. So all those factors mattered. In the end, credit to the West Indian batsmen in terms of how they batted and their application as well," he added.

Talking about Chase in particular, the former Indian captain said,"It is creditable for someone playing in his second Test match, to be able to bat through the day and save the game for his team. Chase's approach today was very good. He looked to attack when needed to and blocked literally every ball. So he kept our bowlers at bay, which was obviously disappointing from the outside.

"I think all their batsmen, right from Jermaine Blackwood, Jason Holder and Shane Dowrich, all of them applied themselves. It's something that we also have to sit down and analyze as to how we're going to get the last five wickets because in this series they have certainly contributed," he added.
India bowled out West Indies for just 196 in their first innings. KL Rahul's third Test hundred and Ajinkya Rahane's unbeaten 108-run knock helped India put on a humongous total of 500/9d. The scoring rate was a bit low as compared to the Antigua Test, and particularly in light of the tropical storm hitting Jamaica on day three and four.

"You can't really look at the forecast and take decisions," said the coach.
"If you looked at the forecast on day three, it was supposed to rain the whole day, and even on day four it was supposed to rain. So you can't really look at the forecast and decide what you need to do. Yes, you strategize slightly differently."

"Having said that, we wanted to bat once because we didn't want to declare with just a lead of 160 runs and then bat again on the fifth day. I thought we played really good cricket and we were dominant right throughout. Today the change in momentum happened and credit to the West Indies' batsmen."

The Indian coach accepted that the position that they were in, Kohli and co. should have won the match.

"From the position, we were in, we should have probably wrapped up the Test match, but having said that this is certainly something that happens in a Test match. Sometimes the opposition puts up a brave challenge and that's exactly what happened," he added.
Despite being reduced to 48/4 on the rain-marred day four then, West Indies were able to put up a momentous batting display and get away with a draw in this second Test. While Chase's knock must be celebrated, at the same time, it ought to be mentioned that a five-bowler attack couldn't take six wickets on fifth day pitch.

"The plan was always to take wickets. Initially, since we had 300 runs on the board, we were attacking and they came hard at us as well, and they got away in the five or six overs. They got a lot
of runs.

"And once that period happened, I believe the ball went a bit soft as well. So it was quite difficult to get the purchase that we were getting yesterday and the conditions were different as well."

Kumble admitted that overcast conditions on the fourth day helped the seamers get more swing.
"It was cloudy, there was some rain about and there was a lot more swing yesterday. So in that sense, we could have probably adapted better. Having said that though, the West Indies' batsmen really applied themselves, so it was quite hard for our bowlers and this was certainly a learning spell. I'm sure on the next opportunity, whenever that is, the bowlers will be probably come up with a different approach, in terms of the challenge," Kumble signed off.

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