New Delhi: John Campbell saved his best for last with a counter-punching unbeaten 87 as the West Indies batters showed rare resilience to live and fight another day after being asked to follow on by India on the third day of the second Test here Saturday.
Riding on a 138 run unbroken stand between Campbell and Shai Hope (66 batting), West Indies reached 173 for two at stumps. These are the only half-centuries that the visitors have managed in this short series, so far.
The West Indies still need 97 runs to force India to bat again and avoid defeat by an innings margin.
Although India’s victory is a certainty, the counter-attack from Campbell and Hope would give them renewed confidence before their tour of New Zealand.
In the first two sessions, left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav (5/82) had set the ball rolling for an early finish with his fifth five-for in Test cricket with West Indies folding for 248 in their first essay.
With 270 runs in arrears and history of three back-to-back shoddy batting shows, it was expected that Indian bowlers will make a short work of the Windies line-up.
West Indies went into the tea with scorecard reading 35 for 2 but Campbell altered his strategy by adopting an offensive approach as he took the aerial route against Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep.
With occasional deliveries keeping low but pitch offering no significant wear and tear, batting wasn’t a difficult proposition.
Seeing Campbell take the attack back to the opposition camp, even Hope gained in confidence and also muscled Kuldeep and Washington Sundar once each to keep the scoreboard moving.
Once there was a bunch of boundaries, the Indian skipper Shubman Gill was forced to deploy an “in-out” field which helped the two batters farm the strike with ease.
At one point, Kuldeep bowled with a long-on, deep extra cover and deep square leg, which showed his defensive mindset despite first innings heroics.
With no visible bite off the surface, the spinners as pointed by Jadeja, had to use the shoulder more to get some zip off the surface but after having bowled in 81.5 overs, the fatigue was visible.
The duo were easily playing the spinners off the backfoot with Hope hitting eight fours and two sixes. Campbell on his part apart from two sixes, hit nine boundaries.
West Indies’ second innings performance will certainly give head coach Darren Sammy hope that all is not lost and there are a few players, who still have it in them to play with a purpose and not just make up numbers.
West Indies started the day at 140 for 4 in their first innings and just after the first half an hour, Kuldeep produced a moment of magic to dismiss an already set Hope (36).
In the post lunch session, it was Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah, who did their bit in cleaning up tail before Kuldeep came in to complete his fifth five-wicket haul in 15th Test match.
For someone who has always been dubbed as a condition based bowler, one five-for in every three games is a phenomenal record.
In the morning, Kuldeep produced a moment of magic to dismiss Shai Hope as the ineptness of the West Indies batting unit was once again laid bare, with the visitors staring down the barrel.
After Jadeja got rid of the top-order on the second evening, it was Kuldeep who bowled a piece of beauty to dismiss Hope (36) and set the ball rolling for the hosts.
Kuldeep, who was initially bringing his bowling arm down from a wider angle, got one closer to his head and fired it slightly quicker. There was appreciable drift as Hope played inside the line and it beat his outside edge to peg back the off-stump.
Once Hope was dismissed, the hope of a revival was out of the window. Tevin Imlach (21) played a leg-break on the backfoot only to be adjudged leg-before through DRS.
Justin Greaves (17) was never going to survive playing those dangerous reverse sweeps bowled on the stumps.
Mohammed Siraj then got into the act taking the wicket of Jomel Warrican, who played one on.
Hope and Imlach tried to carry out a rescue job when Bumrah did not exactly look menacing in the morning.
In fact both Hope and Imlach negotiated Bumrah comfortably and even Kuldeep was hit for a few fours. However once Kuldeep bowled that delivery to Hope, the floodgates opened. The following batters made a beeline towards the pavilion.
In a space of seven overs, West Indies lost four wickets and were reduced to 175 for 8.
Kharry Pierre (23) and Anderson Phillip (24) added 46 runs for the ninth wicket but that was never going to be enough for the visitors to avoid follow-on.
