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Dominica Test Off To A Wet Start

Related Links : India’s Tour of West Indies 2011 : Scorecard of West Indies Vs India, 3rd Test at Roseau

The third and final Test at the Windsor Park in Roseau, Dominica is off to a wet start with only a little over a session’s play possible on the opening day. Just the 31.1 overs were bowled in which West Indies got 75 losing three wickets. This is the first ever Test being played in the island nation Dominica where it is believed that it rains each and every day of the year!

Toss and Teams :

MS Dhoni with a new look face won the toss and got the ideal opportunity of bowling first on a damp track at a new venue which was promising pace and bounce. India made one change with Munaf Patel coming in for Abhimanyu Mithun. West Indies made two changes with Kieran Powell and Kirk Edwards replacing Lendl Simmons and Ramnaresh Sarwan. The 21-year-old left handed Powell and Kirk Edwards were making their Test Debut.

Tale of the Morning Session :

It was expected that the hosts with a weak inexperienced top order would fold up quickly losing five wickets to the new ball in the morning session. However both Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma hardly got any desired movement both in the air and off the track. The West Indian openers – Adrian Barath and Kieran Powell nicley negotiated them. In the 9th over though, Powell was forced to push at a lovely juicy outswinger from Praveen which was edged to second slip. The debutant looked good for his 23-ball stay though he made only 3 in the 17-run opening stand.

In the 13th over, Adrian Barath (12 from 38 balls) was sent back to the pavilion by Ishant Sharma after he dragged a pull shot off the glove to a rising delivery down the legside onto the stumps. In the 17th over, India got a lucky wicket when Kirk Edwards was given caught behind in an attempted hook shot off Ishant. Replays showed that the ball had only kissed the edge of the helmet on its way to MS Dhoni.

West Indies went to lunch at 64 for 3 in 28 overs with Bravo and Chanderpaul at the crease.

Tale of the Afternoon Session :

Only 3.1 overs were bowled post lunch as rain arrived as expected. But what surprised was that it was a persistent shower. The groundstaff were ill equipped with no heavy super sopper available! In the absence of the heavy super rollers, the groundsmen tried to absorb the water on the covers using their tiny super soppers. Unknowingly the groundsmen were spilling quite a bit of water on the outfield while walking off with the rollers! No wonder there wouldn’t have been any further play given the wetness of the outfield. A heavy shower in the evening forced the Umpires to abandon the day’s play.

West Indies had a promising partnership of 40 for the unbroken 4th wicket between Darren Bravo (22* from 53 balls) and Chanderpaul (17* from 44 balls) before rain had the last laugh. For India, the three pacers bowled well. Munaf Patel who was making his comeback after an elbow injury was particularly impressive clocking at sharp speeds at around 85 mph. Munaf kept the pressure intact on the West Indies with figures of 7.1-4-5-0. Harbhajan Singh struggled to create any impression as usual.