West Indies smiling again

As Team India soaked in the disappointment of another agonizing draw, the seniors drained and dazed in the dressing room, it was this crucial moment that told the story of St Lucia. India may have drawn a huge dose of confidence from Antigua, but going into St Kitts for the third Test, the West Indies are smiling.

8216;8216;We are very buoyant about the fact that we are still level. Nobody has drawn any blood yet in this series,8217;8217; said Lara.

Of course, you can talk about the day that never happened, the close lbw shouts that went the other way, the sharp half-chances that slipped by and the easy ones that were dropped.

But nine wickets and 90 overs is not Mission Impossible, not when you have dominated seven of the nine days of this Test series. And even if one 8216;genius8217; decided to change his game at the age of 37, 8216;8216;for the team,8217;8217; it should have been 2-0, it8217;s 0-0 now.

Skipper Rahul Dravid later talked about taking a lot of 8216;8216;confidence8217;8217; and 8216;8216;heart8217;8217; from the Beaujesour Stadium, but it somehow did not sound right, feel good 8212; unlike at the Recreation Ground last week.

Yes, there is work to be done, some tightening to do. A lot of tightening, actually: bowling to left-handers, close-in catching, better use of strikers in the death and yes, the second spinner.

Surely, with three days of eagerly anticipated rest in St Kitts, five days after that before June 22, some serious boardroom action is bound to happen. What will coach Greg Chappell and his firm discuss? Some pointers:

Left hanging: Very soon, somebody, ideally Javagal Srinath, would have take a masterclass for our young pacers on bowling to left-handers

The problem: Very few straighter ones, no yorkers, the away ball just not hitting the right spots. Now look at the amount of overs the West Indian southpaws have gobbled in the two Tests. Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and, worst of all, tailender Ian Bradshaw have been allowed to stay out there over 163 overs so far. Bradshaw burnt 40 balls on the last day of the second Test for his 1 8212; of course, we are not counting Lara8217;s six and-a-half hours, even Srinath would have struggled

It8217;s the catching, again: Dravid let Denesh Ramdin slip through his fingers at second slip when the West Indies were 285/6 with 12 overs to go 8212; Ramdin stayed till the end. Yuvraj Singh took a great catch to shut out Bravo, but had he not stepped back and then reacted to miss that sharp chance at gully off Lara at 70, the game could have turned. At least, Sehwag8217;s face said so.

Death bowling: Munaf Patel showed in just three overs in the last 30 minutes what could have been if he had been given a bigger share of Sehwag8217;s 11 overs till then. Now this one is purely a hindsight thing, but still

Spin calling: Sehwag did a brilliant job as part-timer, 8216;bowled a great line8217;, took four wickets, but don8217;t be fooled. Not when you have Harbhajan Singh and Ramesh Powar waching from the dressing room. The team8217;s spent over a month now in the West Indies, and it8217;s very, very clear that the operative words are 8216;slow and low8217;. It8217;s a pity because India had actually managed to read the pitch right, but still went in with Sehwag as the second spin option, instead of the third

8216;8216;There is no point in talking about people who are not fit,8217;8217; said Dravid, adding, 8216;8216;if you are not fit, you are not fit. We picked four from the five fit bowlers we had, knowing that we had Viru8217;s off-spin as an option. If Harbhajan had been there, it might have been different but8230;8221;