India vs West Indies, 1st Test: India, match come alive

Now into the fourth day, it was time the contest threw something dramatic. Perhaps a pantomime villain moment or a feisty outburst between players, just to enliven what has been a blandly undramatic narrative thus far. West Indies batsmen demonstrating some grit and fight must have made for dramatic viewing. But their second innings effort was just as spineless as their first. For a while, the showed some requisite stomach for gritting it out, like when Rajendra Chandika and Marlon Samuels survived the early storm and stitched an alliance of 67 runs. Even then, they were not batting as if their life hung on it, like you’d say if Shivnarine Chanderpaul was around. The batted with an inevitability of an implosion lurking in the background. And we know it just needs a slight snap for them to cave in.

In any case, survival was a tall task for them. Apart from Kraigg Brathwaite and the inexperienced Rajendra Chandrika, there weren’t any batsman who even remotely knew the art of survival, and that too against a well-rounded bowling unit, drilling in relentless pressure from both ends. If they were to make a jailbreak, it invariably depended on one of their stroke-makers playing an outrageously freakish innings, something of the Dinesh Chandimal in Galle sort. For that they required a ridiculous amount of luck as well.

That was near impossible with the fast bowlers in such burning mood, and Ravichandran Ashwin at his guileful best. The offie was perhaps a little error-prone in the morning session, bowling short and letting the pressure off the batsman. He was torn into by Samuels, their most competent player of spin as well. But post lunch, assisted by the breeze, Ashwin got considerable drift into the right-hander, and he made the best use of it. Once Ashwin scamped Samuels-wonderfully entrapped by following up a couple of ripping off-breaks with the one that didn’t as much – it was a matter of time before they folded in. Ashwin in such kind of wicked mood was irresistible.

In the meantime, there at last was one odd infusion of drama as well. Mohammad Shami, as usual, produced a ball that had Marlon Samuels’s name written on it. The ball, pitched further up than he normally had in this match, snaked back and grazed his glove. The deft deflection, or rather a feather, was enough for the ball to die down to Wriddhimann Saha, who had to now not only sling to his left but also ensure that he grasped it on the full.

Shami, Saha, the slip cordon and even Ishant Sharma, prowling the mid-on, instinctively went up in chorus, convinced he had cleanly clasped it. Ian Gould was less convinced. He sought the third umpire’s intervention. Upon countless reviews, the third umpire was even less convinced. Samuels was accorded the slim benefit of the doubt. Samuels, on whom rested the outlandish Caribbean hopes of forcing a draw, was to live another life. He ambled back from the non-striker’s end to brace for the next ball.

But more drama was just about to unfold. Kohli couldn’t stomach what he thought was unfair and unjust. He felt he and the team were wronged and agitatedly walked up to the umpires with such a resentful expression that you felt he would lose his cool any time. He began on an argumentative mood, and the umpires seemed to explain to him the inconclusiveness of the replays and gestured him to calm him down. But it hardly soothed Kohli, who was still very furious, grimacing and swivelling his head both ways in dismay.

The skipper’s mood had a rub-on effect on the entire team. Suddenly, their intensity wavered, there was overall lapse in focus and Shami completed the over with two most routine full balls he had bowled in the entire match. The umpires called for drinks break soon after and Anil Kumble rushed down to meet his skipper on the boundary ropes and must have possibly sermoned him to move on, though it seemed he too felt was certain it was caught cleanly. Kohli restlessly listened, often nodding his head, but still unconvinced.

The rain-break, which was extended to the lunch interval, wouldn’t have been better timed. It gave them time to calm their nerves and return with a clearer, more positive mindset. Immediately after the players clambered up the stairs, the television cameras showed Kohli intently watching the replays on the laptop. He was yet unconvinced. He must have felt he and his team were wronged. But then, third umpires generally rule the decision in the batsman’s favour, if they have even the remotest degree of doubt. Here they had.

There was as similar instance on Saturday, when Shane Dowrich’s outside edge was snapped up by Ajinkya Rahane at slips, off Ravichandran Ashwin in the 72nd over. Again, the replays triggered conflicting views, and the third umpire, justifiably ruled it in the batsman’s favour. That’s the unwritten rule of the thumb.