Before fightback,Shane Shillingford veers game the other way

It was a different matter that the other bowlers didn’t support Shillingford enough as West Indies surrendered the advantage over the next two sessions.

The pitch was helpful but didn’t aid sharp turn but the odd ball was keeping low. Shillingford found the right line and length to bamboozle a set of batsmen known to be the best players of spin.

He got the left-handed Dhawan with the one that spun away. The Indian opener pushed at it and played on. Vijay was stumped after the delivery — the doosra — spun even as he was preparing to play off-spin after stepping down the track. Tendulkar fell to a iffy decision by umpire Nigel Llong but Shillingford needs to be given credit for foxing Tendulkar with another doosra.

The one that dismissed Kohli was a classical off-break,which deflected off the inside edge — at least the enthusiasm of the West Indies fielders indicated that ball had hit the bat — on to the pad and looped to Kieran Powell at short-leg.

Shillingford is playing Test cricket after an eight-month lull but showed no sign of rust. Last time that West Indies played five-day cricket was in March and the spinner took 19 wickets in the two home Tests against Zimbabwe.

On this tour,he missed the three-day game against Uttar Pradesh due to a sore shoulder and came into this match short on game-time. Shillingford’s art is all about perseverance,accuracy and subtle variations. He made his Test debut 10 years after bursting onto the Caribbean domestic scene in 2000-01. A suspect action hampered his progress. The problem had returned to haunt him during the tour of Sri Lanka in 2010-11 and he was asked by the ICC to take further corrective steps. Shillingford bounced back.

He improved as a bowler under Saqlain Mushtaq,the former Pakistan spinner who was roped in by the West Indies Cricket Board to hold a training clinic for Caribbean spinners.

“Working with Saqi made me mentally tougher in terms of self-belief. He spoke about preparation before a Test match and that’s what I took from him when he was at the spinning camp. Also,he was telling me about my doosra and stuff like that and how I bowled it. So we went to the nets and tried out a few things. Most importantly,he taught me control,” Shillingford explained.

At 31 years of age he,however,has a tough job on hand to make up for the lost time. But the spell he bowled this morning will definitely give him a lot of confidence for the future. Shillingford went wicketless in the next two sessions after making early inroads. Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin used their feet very well against him.

Still his figures of 4 for 130 in 41 overs at the end of the second day’s play looked very impressive. Incidentally,Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha had the combined figures of 3 for 114 in 45 overs in the West Indies first innings on the first day.