India remained in total control of the second Test against the West Indies at the Feroz Shah Kotla grounds on Monday, going into the fifth day with nine wickets in hand and only 58 more runs needed to sweep the series. Despite that, however, the veneer of total domination that Shubman Gill’s side had established by the time they went in for their tea break on Sunday, needing just eight wickets on their way to another comfortable innings victory, slipped ever so slightly after the West Indies fought back and made them toil on the field for 200 overs after India made the unlikely decision to enforce the follow-on. That would be thanks to valiant second innings centuries from John Campbell and Shai Hope, who doubled their overnight fifties despite a tricky early phase that had the potential of being a banana skin. Later, Justin Greaves and Jayden Seales would put on 79 runs for the 10th wicket too, putting the Windies in with a fighting chance that was eventually blunted by India’s top order in the final hour of play here on Monday. Years in the making, an outstanding landmark for our opener. #INDvWI | #MenInMaroon pic.twitter.com/zBJGKyso9f — Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) October 13, 2025 The day began with the West Indies brimming with confidence for the first time in the series, off the back of their first session victory at the end of play on Saturday, with Campbell and Hope’s partnership still holding strong. The opening spells would produce some of the most compelling cricket of the match. Jasprit Bumrah was getting the ball to nip in and out. Typical of his unpredictable style, he got the ball to reverse and made the two settled batters guard their pads with caution while also protecting the outside edge. Admirable fight While both did see it out with admirable fight and some clever tactics; from the other end, they made sure to keep scoring off the spinners as Ravindra Jadeja opened the bowling alongside India’s marquee speedster. Campbell raised his bat for the first Test ton of his start-stop career so far with an excellent display of overnight strokemaking, even if the conditions in Delhi were highly conducive to batting. A misjudgement saw him go back to the dressing room, getting caught leg-before while attempting his first reverse sweep of the innings, which ended the duo’s 177-run stand that was key in providing West Indies’ creditable fightback in the aftermath of so much recent negativity. His partner, Hope, though, motored along to bring up his first hundred in eight years in a solid stand alongside his skipper Roston Chase. Hope’s Test average of 25.37 and his lack of a 50+ score since 2019 had put considerable pressure on his position in West Indies’ playing squad, perhaps instructive of the shallowness of their talent pool. Still, here he did not miss the opportunity for easy runs to bring up the kind of big score that will inspire some much-needed confidence. Chase and he went into the lunch break looking capable of playing the long game and giving their side a chance. Well worth the wait, test match century no.3️⃣#INDvWI | #MenInMaroon pic.twitter.com/NiI14GzpH2 — Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) October 13, 2025 However, the inevitability of the result, due to the West Indies' huge trail following the first innings, reared its head as India took the new ball as soon as possible and triggered a small collapse. Hope was the first to fall, chopping — an inside edge on to the stumps on Mohammed Siraj's ball that stayed low and creeped in on him. That would be a mark of the next few dismissals, three of which were collected by balls from Kuldeep Yadav, whose consistent turn combined with the low bounce to fox the batters. He ended with 8 wickets for the match, his joint highest haul in a single Test in the 15 matches he has played so far. Brilliant Jasprit Bumrah's incisive spell of 3/44 👌 WATCH 🔽 | #TeamIndia | #INDvWI | @IDFCFIRSTBank | @Jaspritbumrah93 — BCCI (@BCCI) October 13, 2025 The flaccid nature of this surface, which played flat and failed to deteriorate to aid the spinners even on the fourth day, elongated proceedings. The defiant stand between Greaves and Seales, the second-highest ever 10th-wicket partnership against India which went on for close to two hours including the tea break, took the West Indies to a 120-run lead and gave them a glimmer of hope. As Yashasvi Jaiswal came to bat with 18 overs of the day remaining and hit two boundaries, one powerful cover drive and one finely played to third man, it may have given the impression that they were motivated to finish this on Monday itself. But once he lost his wicket, caught in the deep off Jomel Warrican, KL Rahul and B Sai Sudharsan put together a mature 54-run stand without taking many risks. The wait for victory will spill onto the final day, but it remains inevitable nevertheless.
