Related Links : West Indies’ Tour of India 2011/12 : Scorecard of India Vs West Indies, 3rd Test at Mumbai
Darren Bravo went onto score a career best of 166 while getting able support from the rest of the batsmen as West Indies piled up 575 for 9 by close of play on Day 2 of the Mumbai Test. Interestingly all the top six batsmen of West Indies posted a score of 50+ which is the fifth such occurrence in Test match history. With such a tall score, West Indies have certainly batted India out of the contest which is mainly aimed at avoiding a 0-3 whitewash.
The second day’s play started with two half-centurions Kirk Edwards and Darren Bravo at the crease with West Indies sitting pretty at 267 for 2. It took a little over an hour for India to dislodge this pair with Kirk Edwards (86 from 165 balls with 13 fours) on the backfoot getting forced to nick a magical pacy leg cutter from Ishant Sharma to the keeper in the 104th over. It was the end of a solid 164-run stand. Despite this success, India had to see yet another partnership blossom this time between the young left-handed Kieran Powell and Darren Bravo.
Kieran Powell was a surprise for India as he played daring shots right from the word go to accelerate the scoring. By lunch, West Indies moved forward to 378 for 3 in 121 overs with Bravo scoring his 3rd Test hundred and Powell racing away to 38*. After more than an hour after lunch, Pragyan Ojha broke the 4th wicket stand which took West Indies close to 500. Kieran Powell (81 from 149 balls with 9 fours) was caught behind when he tried to cut what was a straighter one from the left hander too hard.
West Indies finished the afternoon session at 494 for 4 in 157 overs with Bravo on 156* and Samuels on 18*. In the final session of play, Varun Aaron in an inspired spell picked up three wickets out of nowhere. First he got Darren Bravo (166 from 284 balls with 17 fours) edging a flashy drive on the up to the keeper, then he got Carlton Baugh (4) chopping a speedy short ball onto the stumps and lastly got Darren Sammy (3) edging a backfoot drive to the keeper. While these three wickets fell in quicktime, West Indies had Marlon Samuels batting fluently and pushing the scoreboard forward.
Off Spinner R Ashwin returned back to add two more wickets to his figures. He got the left-handed Ravi Rampaul (10) caught pad bat at silly point with a drifter and then had Marlon Samuels (61 from 103 balls with 9 fours) edging a carrom ball to Dravid at slip. West Indies closed the second day’s play at 575 for 9 in 181 overs and they could come up with a declaration just ahead of the morning session on Day 3.