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West Indies push Delhi Test to Day 5 as India remains 58 runs short of victory. Exciting finish ahead in the cricket thriller!
Rahul and Sudharsan remained unbeaten at stumps. © BCCI
West Indies continued to display batting improvements on the go as John Campbell and Shai Hope scored centuries to push India to the hilt in Delhi. India toiled for long periods as there was resistance from West Indies’ lower-order too, with Justin Greaves scoring a fifty in the midst of a final-wicket stand with Jayden Seales. Kuldeep Yadav followed his first-innings fifer with three in the second, while Jasprit Bumrah also picked three to bundle out West Indies for 390 in the final session. In chase of 121, India went to stumps at 63/1.
India’s hunt for a quick breakthrough on the fourth morning was met with steely opposition from the two overnight batters. The pitch had completely flattened out and the pair did enough to see off a five-over spell from Jasprit Bumrah which came with a hint of reverse swing in it. Campbell also survived a close LBW shout – the replays not conclusive enough for the TV umpire to overturn.
Ravindra Jadeja started in tandem with Bumrah and came close but not enough to eke out a wicket. On a pitch where there wasn’t assistance, Jadeja switched angles to try and force a mistake. Campbell spent a long time in the 90s before launching the left-arm spinner for a big six over mid-wicket to bring up his maiden Test hundred. But in the first over after drinks, Campbell was trapped leg before by Jadeja when he tried and missed a reverse sweep. But Roston Chase walked out and carried on the endeavour of dwarfing India’s lead. He and Hope took the team to Lunch at 252/3.
India took the new ball the moment it was available but the most significant event since then was Shai Hope bringing up his century – his first in 58 innings. Mohammed Siraj then dismissed him against the run of play as one ball kept low from length and the batter played it back onto his stumps. Once Bumrah finished his short spell with the new ball without a wicket, Gill turned to Kuldeep. Tevin Imlach put the left-arm wrist spinner off his lengths by giving him the charge twice in a 10-run over to begin this spell. But in the next over, Kuldeep pushed Imlach on the backfoot and trapped him leg before – identical to how he got him in the first innings.
The baton of the West Indies fight passed on to Chase, who too showed good application for his 72-ball 40 but fell flicking a Kuldeep delivery to Devdutt Padikkal at short mid-wicket. Jomel Warrican then had his middle-stump flattened by an inducker from Bumrah. When the pacer induced a faint nick of Anderson Phillip’s bat to Jurel just a couple of overs later, it seemed like the end for West Indies was in sight.
But the final-wicket pair of Seales and Greaves had other plans. They comfortably motored along in a 79-run stand across 22 overs. Greaves got to his half-century and even Seales got into the 30s before holing out to Washington Sundar at deep square leg. By then, India had sent down 118.5 overs, the most since the first innings of the Ahmedabad Test against Australia in 2023.
Yashasvi Jaiswal arrived with the idea of snaring the target of 121 in what was left in the evening, but he fell trying to clear the long on fence in the second over. KL Rahul and Sai Sudharsan were calmer in their approach, taking India to the end of the day without more damage. They will return on Tuesday morning in search of 58 more runs for a 2-0 series sweep,
Brief Scores:India 518/5 decl. (Yashasvi Jaiswal 175, Shubman Gill 129*, Sai Sudharsan 87; Jomel Warrican 3-98) & 63/1 trail West Indies 248 (Alick Athinaze 41, Shai Hope 36, Tagnarine Chanderpaul 34 ) & 390 (f/o) (John Campbell 113, Shai Hope 103, Justin Greaves 50; Jasprit Bumrah 3-44, Kuldeep Yadav 3-104) by 58 runs
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