Highlights of Day 3: Rain plays saviour for West Indies as India tightens grip over the match

Dec 31, 2018 at 1:59 PM

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Highlights of Day 3: Rain plays saviour for West Indies as India tightens grip over the match

Disciplined first session – For the second consecutive day, the West Indies bowlers bowled beautifully in the opening session of the day and ensured that they do not leak many runs. In 26.4 overs bowled in the first session of day 3, the overnight batsmen Ajinkya Rahane and Wriddhiman Saha could just add 67 runs to the total at a run rate of fewer than 3 runs/over. We were just 3 balls away from the lunch and boom! Big blow to Indian cricket team as Saha got trapped in front of the wicket off Jason Holder. The ball did not bounce much and the umpire did not have any hesitation in giving a judgement in favour of the fielding team. Saha worked hard for his well made 47 runs and was unfortunate to miss out on a half-century for the second consecutive time.

So near and yet so far – This idiom seems to best suited to the condition of West Indies bowlers. In the first session of the day, we saw Indian batsmen struggling against the West Indies fast bowlers. They were finding it difficult to face them as West Indies bowlers were asking them tough questions. Gabriel was the pick of the bowlers as a strongly built man was swinging the cherry both the ways. As we saw yesterday, for the first few minutes he attacked with the in-swingers before coming up with a mix up of both in swing and out swing. He was unfortunate not to get a wicket in the first session of the game. He thoroughly deserved a wicket in the morning session as he was bowling perfectly despite the lack of support from the other end in the starting overs of the day.

Holder- Rahane saga – It all started in the over number 142 and continued till the lunch break The first ball of the mentioned over from Jason Holder to Ajinkya Rahane was straight on the thigh pad of Rahane. The second ball drew an LBW appeal but Rahane had already knicked it before it could have any contact with the pads. The third one was a leg cutter which rolled like a top after passing Rahane before going into the hands of wicket-keeper.

Bowler again drew an appeal on the fourth delivery as Rahane again missed one which touched his pads. The fifth and sixth deliveries were also not easy to handle as Rahane was seen troubled with both of them. It looked like Rahane has lost his concentration after spending hours at the crease. Rahane finally relieved himself by hitting a straight drive off Holder in the 148th over. During these six overs, he was moving his feet like he is dancing on a dance floor in an after match IPL party. His feet moment reminded us a little bit of Younis Khan feet moment which we saw last week against the Test match against England.

It was seen that Holder was upset not getting a wicket after so much of efforts but he was not totally worn out and bounced back dismissing Saha just on the brink of lunch break.

A Rahane ton – Rahane’s seventh Test match ton did not come in a way he would have wanted it to come. He was looking to block one from Roston Chase and went upon the delivery, the ball instead went straight and Rahane edged it towards the slip where the fielder Blackwood instead of going left went towards his right to collect the ball. The ball went on to touch the boundary ropes and it was a moment of joy for Ajinkya Rahane. This was Rahane’s seventh ton against the sixth different nation. Soon after his century, Umesh Yadav got out and Kohli decided to declare the innings with Indian team having a lead of 304 runs over West Indies team.

Rain has its say – The moment Indian team called off their innings, it started raining. Rain continued to play hide and seek with the players and the officials. Finally, after a wait of two hours, umpires decided to call off the day because conditions weren’t good enough to restart the play. It is surely good news for West Indies as heavy showers are expected tomorrow which will benefit them a lot. There will be an early start tomorrow as the match will begin at 9:30 A.M. according to West Indies time zone.

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